


I Wouldn't Mind

by alicegirl88



Category: Fallout - Fandom, Fallout 4
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Drug Use, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff, Kidnapping, Past Abuse, Rape/Non-con Elements, Torture, explicit violence, possible ooc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2018-08-21 20:24:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 16
Words: 44,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8259491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alicegirl88/pseuds/alicegirl88
Summary: Ebony Astor emerges into a world with no memory and only a computer file to go off of. She's weak and injured, on the precipice of death, when Nick Valentine stumbles across her. Since the doctors in Diamond City are idiotic psychos, he carries her to Goodneighbour, specifically to Doctor Amari. Hancock is more than happy to help the broken woman, feeling extremely protective of her. They get one hell of a shock when they find out how unique and special the woman is.





	1. Off The Ice Block, and Into The Wasteland

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!! This is the first Fanfic I've done, so I'd really appreciate constructive criticism. This is a work I'm transferring from Wattpad. I've decided that I wanted to continue it on this site instead, so please don't think that I'm copying another story. I've posted a notice on there saying that I'm transferring it and have made the first seven parts private only, although I highly doubt anyone cares.

**_Thursday, July 28th, 2278_ **

 

 _So cold. So dark._ The cold made her skin prickle. _Hard to breathe._ The darkness enveloped her, cutting into her delicate skin. She could her a mechanical voice, but it sounded so distant. _Why can't I breathe, dammit?!_

Before panic set in, a light blazed on as it got warmer, hurting her eyes. The pod she was in opened up with a sigh, and she crumpled to the cold, hard ground, coughing and gasping for precious air. She lied there for a moment, clutching at the uninviting floor, desperate for something to ground her. _Where am I? Hell, who am I?!_

She sat up slowly, her whole body shaking. She looked around cautiously. She was in a rectangular room with pods like the one she fell out of lining the walls, the name of them just on the tip of her tongue. _Cry-CRYO PODS! I've been frozen?! How long?! And who the hell froze me?_ As all the questions piled up in her mind, she realized how weak she was. She had to have been frozen for a while because she was dangerously thin.

She tried to stand, failed a few times but finally managed to get into a somewhat stable position. She limped to the end of the room, passing pods that held the dead. _I have to get out of here._ When she got to the door, it wouldn't open. She cut through another room, having to quicken her pace when two giant roaches started chasing her, all the while thinking something along the lines of “WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE?!”

She ran, more of a desperate limping than running, into some kind of large office, slammed a button beside the door, and watched as it crushed one of the monstrous bugs. She glanced around the office and tried the door on the other side of the room. _Locked, great._

She walked over to a terminal that surprisingly still worked. There were several files listed. A light flickered above. She saw the option to click that would unlock all the doors in this metal hell, but a file designated Ebony Astor drew her attention. _Astor? Why does that sound so familiar?_ She clicked the file, dread building up in her as the light flickered several more times.

_**{The subject, known as Nora Astor, has shown astounding results so far, much better than the others. We have been pumping increasing amounts of radiation into her pod, and she has yet to have any problems. This is perfect for us. We might actually have a way to make humans resistant to negative mutations. The infant is responding well, too, so some of the others hypothesize that it's a certain gene the parent and child both share. The downside is that it's most likely rare. A tiny glitch in the DNA that not many have. The other subjects are basically decomposing. We decided to wake one woman, and she went insane. She couldn't remember a thing from before she was frozen, which was an expected side effect, albeit one that could be solved in time. She also cowered in the corner for quite some time, rambling on about sharp pains in her head. The security guards went ahead and put her out of her misery. Hopefully these headaches won't be a problem for our two more promising candidates.** _

_**The female candidate has shown some physical change. A few weeks after the radiation pumping began, her hair changed from a light blonde to jet black and she became paler than she already was. The scientists have begun to call her Subject Ebony. She also began to lose weight a bit faster, although her cryogenic state should have slowed that down considerably. We're going to have to find a way to fix that, or we could have disastrous results. SIDE NOTE: We’ve also noticed that she isn’t really resistant to the radiation, but instead she soaks it up, as if she’s storing it, and it causes no hideous mutations the things outside have.** _

_**The infant, Shaun, has not physically changed, but, as with his mother, he hasn't mutated horribly and seems to soak up the extreme levels of radiation unaffected. The same cannot be said for the father, Nate Astor, a Lieutenant in the army. According to the records, he taught [Ebony] how to defend herself, a factor we could use to our advantage. All that aside, he seems to be decaying at the same rate as the others, despite the cold. Soon, we'll be moving the infant to a pod of his own.}** _

"What the..." Her voice was coarse from lack of use, just barely a whisper, and the rough sound of it snapped her back to reality. The overhead light busted with a loud bang. She jumped and looked around in the soft glow of the emergency lights.

There were other files, some talking about an "Institute" and others about her, but she had to get out of this hell. She needed to get everything straight. It was too much to handle right now.

She quickly pressed the door release option, and rushed from the room, following the tunnels to an open room with a large, cog-shaped door in the front. She went over to what she thought was the control panel, careful to avoid a collapsed skeleton, and pressed the orange and red button.

"Only authorized personnel with a PipBoy may use the door controls. Please have a nice day," the electronic female voice she heard earlier announced. She glanced at the skeleton slowly turning to dust. _Of course it still has the PipBoy on its wrist. Oh god, I don't want to touch him..._ She reluctantly reached down and picked up the heavy electronic. She flinched as the arm of the skeleton fell back onto the metal floor with a clang.

She hurriedly put the PipBoy on and adjusted the straps to snugly fit her, somehow feeling like she had used the device before. She then went through the process of opening the door, and cringed at the loud scraping of the door twisting open.

As she moved on to a room with a large elevator, she tried to keep her thoughts as far away from that file as possible. I just need to get out of here. Then I can try to get a grip on things. She walked onto the elevator pad, and as it lurched upward, she sat down and held her knees tightly to her, dreading the dark, long, claustrophobic ride to the surface. _But what is there to get a grip on? I don't remember anything. I don’t even remember my own name, the fact that I had a husband, or even a son!! Wait... My name... My name's Ebony, the computer said that's what the scientists called me. Not Nora._ She felt a bit of relief from having a sense of identity, knowing her name was a step in the right direction.

Once the elevator emerged, Ebony was blinded by the blazing sunlight, but welcomed the openness. Her head began to ache as she shielded her eyes from the sun. It was boiling hot, and, as she looked around, she saw heat waves coming off of the decimated trailers. The PipBoy said that it was July 28th and that it was eleven o’clock. God, I hate summer, a tiny voice in the back of her head said.

When she was able to adjust to the light, she slowly walked to the edge of the small cliff in front of her. A small neighborhood was just a ways away, and a calm stream ran just below her. She didn't get to see much more as the dusty, untrodden ground gave way beneath her. She cried out, tumbling to a painful stop by the stream.

"Ugh, shit," she said as she rolled on to her back, freezing when she felt a piercing agony in her right arm. She yelped and looked over to see a large shard of dirty glass sticking out of her arm.

It was in her upper arm, and she was worried that it had hit an artery. Those worries dissipated when she pulled it out with an agonized scream and saw that there wasn't any arterial blood. How she knew the difference was a mystery to her, but something in her just knew. However, she was bleeding quite a bit.

Putting pressure on the wound, she stood up. The neighborhood was practically right in front of her and it felt so familiar, but her gut was telling her to avoid it and the familiarity was accompanied by a sense of dread and fear. No one could possibly be living in the dilapidated houses, and she did not want to deal with anymore giant roaches or any other horrors that might be hiding there.

She made her way around the suburb, giving a wide berth and trying to stay low. She eventually came to a shallow river that the stream connected to and decided to risk going across. As she waded through the waters, kicking up dirt and making it muddy, she felt a slight, warm buzz around her ankles that wasn’t entirely unpleasant. Picking up her pace, she made it to the other side and up to a cracked road.

She walked down the ancient road, coming upon a gas station, and heard a curious growl. Freezing in place, she saw a beautiful German Shepherd approach from the garage in the side of the building. It slowly walked towards her, sniffing cautiously as she held out her hand. He didn't seem threatening, and once he had licked her hand and let her pet him, he sat and panted, happily staring up at her.

"Well, hi there," she said, only being able to manage something above a whisper. "Aren't you a sweet boy!" She smiled down at him when he nuzzled into her hand, the other still holding the wound. He smelt the blood on her and whimpered. "Oh, I'll be okay. I hope, at least. Do you wanna come with me? You sure do seem like a sweetheart."

The dog barked happily at her request and began to walk to the edge of the road she had come from. He then stopped and seemed to wait for her. Realizing this, she weakly hurried after him, her legs beginning to ache dully although she hadn't really walked far. They continued down the road, avoiding the town ahead when gunshots rang out.

Eventually, after she had to stop to catch her breath several times, they came upon a highway leading across a wide river. They crossed quietly, Ebony trying to ignore piles of bones that were slowly turning to dust. Once on the other side, she started to feel sluggish and had a gnawing hunger in the pit of her stomach.

She heard the dog, who actually had a hand made collar with a tag that said Dogmeat, growl menacingly. She looked to see what had pissed him off just in time to be tackled by a humanoid creature, yelping in surprise. She tried to crawl backwards out from under it, which only pissed it off more. It screeched at her and its deformed hands swiped at her chest, breaking through fabric and skin. She reached out beside her, looking for anything that might help, and grasped a heavy pipe.

The creature was painfully scratching at her legs, a metallic smell wafting into the air to accompany the creatures rotting stench. Dogmeat was biting at the creature’s leg, trying desperately to pull it off of her.

Before the thing could swipe at the Shepherd, she swung the lead pipe at its head with all the strength she could muster, which wasn't much, but it was enough to knock it off of her. It hit the pavement with a sickening crack and stopped moving. But she wasn't taking any chances.

She brought the pipe down brutally on its disfigured head. Over and over and over. Blood and rotted brain matter sprayed out and splattered her and a nearby car. Once she was sure the creature would never move again, she dropped the pipe, her breathing labored. The adrenaline rush had dissipated any sluggishness from before.

The creature looked practically bleached and had tattered clothes draping its emaciated form. Its skin was rough and pulled taut over muscle. Its back was crooked and humped.

She looked down at herself and grimaced at the blood and brains. More blood seeped from the scratches, some dangerously deep, but somehow she found the strength to move.

"Well, Dogmeat, we need to keep going. There's probably more," she said, still trying to catch her breath. Dogmeat looked up at her and whimpered worriedly, nudging her hand. "I'll be okay buddy." _How can I think that I'll be okay? I don't even know where the fuck we are or where we're going._

They continued on with Ebony limping and having to stop and rest every so often. She was hungry, thirsty, and completely exhausted, not to mention that she jumped at every sound she heard. She had to have been in the cryo-pod for a long time to be this weak.

She could hardly hold herself up when she came upon a subway entrance near a place called the Boston Commons, according to a plague. She slid down a wall across from the subway entrance, leaving a trail of blood, her vision getting blurry. She didn't know how long they had walked but it felt like an eternity and it was beginning to get dark. The blood flow had slowed down but it was still coming, and she felt lightheaded, distantly wondering how she hadn’t already bled out.

Dogmeat sniffed at her, whimpering. He licked at her hands, unsuccessfully trying to get her to move. She couldn't talk, couldn't tell him that it'll be okay or to just leave so he won't get hurt by whatever the else was around. She felt him lay down beside her and lay his head on her lap, careful to avoid the deep gashes as if he knew it would hurt her. He looked up at her with his big brown eyes, and a small smile tugged at the side of her mouth, tears beginning to form in her eyes. She had just enough strength in her to set her hand in his head.

_So this is how it's gonna end, huh? Just after it all started. But I don't want to die..._

She felt silent tears begin to roll down her face, and then everything spiraled into darkness.

*****************************************************************************************

"Damn, I'm lucky I can talk myself out of trouble," Nick grumbled to himself. The detective was walking up the subway stairs, having convinced Skinny Malone to let him go quietly, while Malone's brutes glared at him. The humid Commonwealth summer air hit him hard, but he welcomed it. The subway had smelled like piss and bad cologne. A drizzle of rain began to fall. He had just fished a pack of cigarettes out of his packet when he heard the low, warning growl of a dog.

On instinct he reached for his gun, expecting a wild mongrel, but when he turned in the direction of the growl, he saw a large, healthy looking German Shepherd standing protectively over a body slouched against the brickwork.

He quickly put the pistol back in its holster, and then slowly walked over, holding out his hands to the dog to show that he wasn't a threat. Once he settled and sat down obediently, he began whining and nudging at the body that he had been protecting. He gasped when he saw her and crouched down to her level, detective senses kicking into overdrive.

She was dangerously thin, so thin that it couldn't have just happened in a few weeks. It must've been years. She was unnaturally pale. _Probably kept underground. For a really long time, to get to this state._

 _She must've been attacked by a feral,_ he thought as he took inventory of her wounds. She was breathing, though shallowly. When he tried to move her arm to check some scratches on her thigh, her eyes fluttered open for only a second. He just caught a glimpse, but his breath caught when he saw her eyes. They were the palest blue he'd ever seen, and they seemed to have glowed, almost like his.

 _She can't be a synth, I would be able to see components through her wounds._ He sighed. _I'm gonna have to take her to a doctor, and soon, or she'll bleed out. I can't take her to the nuts in Diamond City. Hell, I'd practically be handing her to Death himself._  He rose to a standing position and took in the area, pondering what to do. _Doctor Amari, on the other hand, isn't an absolute psycho. But does she know how to treat wounds like these?_ Seeing as she was the only option, he picked up the limp body as if it were nothing.

"She's so light," he whispered to himself, his eyebrows furrowing with worry. **(A/N: I don't know how to explain how he doesn't really have eyebrows, so let's just pretend. Okay, back to the story.)** He could also feel her body practically buzzing. Nick knew the only thing it could've been was radiation.

He looked at the dog when he whimpered. "It'll be okay, boy. We've just gotta get her to Goodneighbour," he said beginning to walk in the direction of the drifter filled town while Dogmeat stayed at his heels, never straying far.

_I sure do hope the Commonwealth's best mayor still likes to help people._


	2. Meeting A Ghoul And A Synth

_**Thursday, July 28th, 2287 (Evening)** _

 

Hancock watched from the window of his office in the State House when Valentine walked through Goodneighbour’s door. Even from here, his heightened sense of smell caught the scent of blood. And there was a lot of it. He looked to what, no, _who_ Nick was carrying, but could only see a mess of long black locks from this angle. It looked as if the dog sitting next to him was growling, so his gaze switched to the offender.

He saw Finn, no doubt trying to extort them, which pissed him the fuck off. He’d had a talk with him about one too many times, and now he had the balls to bother a good friend of Hancock’s and someone who was injured pretty fucking badly by the smell of it. It seemed Nick had told Finn to go screw himself, but the fucker kept pushing.

He walked quickly down the stairs and out the door. As he walked out the door, he heard Finn tell Nick to give him everything the girl had on her.

“You’re gonna be the one needing insurance if you don’t back the fuck off and let me get her to Amari,” Nick practically yelled. A bit of a crowd was beginning to gather, and Hancock decided to use this as an opportunity to show people why they don’t fuck with his friends.

“Well, now. What the fuck do you think you’re doing Finn?” His voice was pleasant, but he made sure that no one could miss the steel in it.

Finn visibly jumped and turned to Hancock. “Uh, Mayor, I was just, uh....welcoming Nick and his new friend to our nice little town," he was stumbling over his words and making himself look even more like an idiot. Hancock smirked, sauntering over to the bastard.

"Oh, really now? Because from my view in the State House, it looked as if you were tryin' to extort them. Finn, can't you see she's injured?" Hancock gestured to the broken body in Nick’s arms, Nick watching with a mix of impatience and amusement. "I thought even you wouldn't stoop so low to try and blackmail a wounded person, especially one that doesn’t even seem to be conscious!" Hancock stated, letting his voice rise a bit near the end. The crowd was getting bigger, and Daisy watched from the doorway of her shop, smiling slightly. She knew what was going to come next.

"Mayor, I wasn't manipulatin' 'em, I swear!" Hancock's face twitched in annoyance at the lie. Dogmeat growled lowly at Finn.

"Come here, Finn. I wanna tell ya somethin'," Hancock said, his tone becoming friendly. He beckoned the guard closer and layed a hand on his shoulder. Then, with lightning speed, he reached for the hidden knife behind his back, plunging it into Finn's stomach one, two, three times. Wiping off his knife on Finn's chest, the mayor turned to Nick and smiled. "Well, if it ain't ol' Nicky!" Hancock said warmly.

The detective looked at him, impatience gracing his features. "We don't have time for warm welcomes and hugs, Hancock. We have to get this woman to Amari or she _will_ die," Nick said quickly. Hancock's face became serious as he approached him, surveying the woman in his arms.

It was as if protective instincts he didn’t even know he had kicked in all at once. The woman was so small and frail looking, it broke his heart.

"Here, I'll carry her. I'm gonna guess you've been doin' it all the way here," Hancock took the frail woman in his arms, taking the load off of Nick, although she wasn't that heavy. He felt the hum of radiation coming off of her in waves, and shot a questioning look to Nick. He said that he had felt it too, but that it eventually faded. Hancock jerked his head in the direction of the Memory Den, telling Nick and the dog to follow.

The crowd parted, allowing the four to make their way through hurriedly. They walked through the littered streets of Goodneighbour, passing the Third Rail and making a bee line for the Den.

Once they entered, a sweet perfume smell wafted up. "Doctor! We need you!" Nick called to her. She looked up, saw the woman in Hancock's arms, and hurried over, eyes wide. She rushed them to a room on the left that had a bed and medical supplies scattered about. Before closing the door, she told Irma to make sure no one came into the room.

"Set her on the bed, Mayor," she ordered. Hancock gently set her down and was surprised when she moaned in pain, but she remained unconscious. Amari was bustling around gathering supplies.

"Well just by looking at her, I can tell she's malnourished and dehydrated. And she's going to need a  **lot** of stitches," the doctor told them. The dog went to the side if the bed and licked the wounded woman's hand, whimpering. Amari looked up at the men. "That's not even accounting for any internal trauma she may have. Do I even want to know where you two found her?"

"I was the one who found her," Nick said, looking worriedly at the young woman. "I had just walked out of Park Street Station, which is another story for another time, and she was slouched against the wall with the dog standing over her."

"Does she have a name?"

"She was already unconscious when I found her."

"Hm. Well, both of you, get out. I have work to do," she said, ushering them out. As they exited, Nick noticed a look of worry on Hancock's face.

 _Seems he might get a bit attached to her._  Nick looked at him sadly while he wasn't looking because he knew. He knew how dangerous it was to become attached.

*****************************************************************************************

**_(About midnight)_ **

 

Hancock was even more pissed when he thought about the broken woman.  _Who the fuck could've done that to her?!_

He had invited Nick to spend the night in the State House, and the offer was quickly accepted. Now they were in his office, him sitting at his desk with his feet propped up and Nick lounging on the couch.

He thoughts had been clouded with worry ever since he had taken her from Nick and carried her to the Den. It had been a couple of hours, it was around midnight, and Amari was still working on her. She had been covered in blood, which he could still smell because of the stains on Nick’s jacket, and he recognized the jagged scratches of a feral. Another side of his brain was focused on how beautiful she was. Her hair was so long and blacker than his eyes. It seemed as if she radiated her own light, and her pale skin was unburned by the unforgiving Commonwealth sun.

"So who do you think she is?" Nick's voice snapped him back to reality.

"What?"

"The girl. Who do you think she is? I mean there are tons of different people in the 'Wealth, but still. She's different. And you felt the radiation just rolling off of her. The level of radiation she must've been exposed to would've killed any other person," he pointed out. Hancock nodded.

"Then there's the jumpsuit and the PipBoy. The suit was covered in blood, but there's no doubting it's from a vault. But then we can't go assuming she's a vault dweller. She could just be a drifter that stumbled upon another dweller," Hancock added. Nick stretched out and put his feet on the coffee table. He thought for a minute, and Hancock could tell that his detective instinct was kicking in.

"I doubt it. You saw how pale she was, that really only could've happened if she was kept underground for a long period of time," Nick sighed. "But then there's the fact that she was starved. Aren't those vaults pretty well stocked? Plus, some of them trade with the outside." Hancock reached into his coat for the tin of Mentats and popped a couple in his mouth. Nick just shook his head and lit a cigarette.

"Yeah, but a lot of those vaults run some pretty sick experiments on their inhabitants," Hancock mentioned.

"So starving people is considered an experiment?"

"Well, Vault-Tec was pretty fucked up, and besides, they'd consider anything an experiment as long as they got to toy with people," Hancock stated matter-of-factly. Nick nodded in agreement, but a knock at the door ended the conversation.

Fahrenheit opened the door and leaned against its frame, one hand propped on her hip. "Dr. Amari wants to see both of you. About the mystery girl," she said, nodding at Nick as greeting. She and some other Watch guards had been too busy cleaning the mess that Hancock left to actually say hello and figure out what the hell had happened.

The two men rose quickly, Nick grabbing his now blood-stained trench coat and slipping it on. They were out so fast that Fahrenheit had to jump out of the way to avoid being knocked over.

"Well jeez, you could've at least excuse me or somethin'!" She yelled at them, annoyed. Hancock just ignored her, needing to see the young woman he knew nothing about but already cared for so much. Besides, he could apologize later.

When they entered the Memory, Den Dr. Amari was outside the room, waiting for them. "So, how's our mystery girl, Amari?" Nick asked.

"Well, she's definitely a mystery. Here, come look at this," Amari directed them to a terminal in the back of the room, behind the couch that Irma was lounging on. She pulled up a list. "I was testing her blood for several things, radiation being one of them. Look." She pointed to a number on the screen.

_1286 fucking rads?!?!_

"What the fuck! How the hell could her levels be  **that** damn high and she not be dead? Or at least horribly mutated?!" Hancock asked in shock. Nick was completely silent and just stared at the screen, processors going crazy

"I have no idea. And the kicker is that some things show that it has been even higher before. With levels that high she should've turned into a ghoul and most likely have gone feral. Which was why I had to take a precaution," Amari said, continuing when Hancock raised what used to be an eyebrow. "For safety reasons, I restrained her. Just some straps on her wrists and ankles. I didn't want her going haywire and killing me. Also, she has mutated, it's just not painfully obvious." The fact the Amari had restrained her bothered him, but he could understand why she did.

"What do you mean?" Nick said quietly.

"She's healing a lot faster than any other person I've ever treated. Within a week, all wounds should be gone, probably not even scarring. And I've got her hooked up to an IV to hydrate her, which seems to be going normally." Dogmeat, who had been sitting protectively by the door to the woman's room, began to whimper and sniff at the door.

Everyone exchanged looks and Hancock spoke first, "Well, why don't we go check in on her? Maybe she's awake and can give us some answers herself.”

*****************************************************************************************

As Ebony came to she heard the beeping of medical machines.  _A hospital?_ Her eyes flew open when she realized something was tied tight around her wrists and ankles. Looking down she saw thick ropes restraining her to where she could barely move.

She sat up as much as she could and looked around, the panic of claustrophobia setting in. She was on a bed in the middle of a small, dim room, an IV with clear fluid going into her arm and some sort of heart monitor beside it. She pulled at the restraints uselessly, hot tears beginning to run down her face. She noticed that her wounds had been stitched and bandaged, but she couldn't understand why whoever had helped her would restrain her.

Another wave of panic washed over her when she realized something like this had happened to her before, but she couldn't remember it. There was only the feeling that she was in danger and she needed to get away from someone. Who that someone was, she had no idea. Her breathing became ragged and she felt her heart pounding in her chest, the machine beeping in tandem. The tears increased and she knew there was no way to get out, but she kept pulling against the ropes anyway.

Then the door swung open and she jumped back as far as her restraints would let her. Light blinded her as it washed the room. She just wanted to curl up into a ball and disappear.

A dog ran forward to the side of her bed, and it was like the events of the day slammed into her. The panic had clouded her mind, refusing to let those few memories return. She calmed slightly, but was still shaky because she didn't know where she was. The heart monitor was still a little erratic.

"Dogmeat," she basically whispered, sniffling. She reached as far as she could and he met her hand halfway, nudging her lovingly.

"Hey there, sister. There's no need for tears," her head snapped up to find the owner of the rough but caring voice. It made her begin to feel completely calm, and sent shivers down her spine. She found a man in a long red coat and tricorn hat. He had onyx eyes that widened when her own met his. His were so hypnotic and beautiful that she could only stare in wonder.

Hancock felt like the wind had been knocked out of him when he saw her eyes. They were such a brilliantly bright blue, even brighter from tears. In his peripheral vision he saw Nick give a small, understanding smile.

Nick looked to Amari, asking her something, but to Hancock, their conversation was miles away. He stared at the wounded young woman sitting in front of him, who was returning his gaze. Tears were still rolling down her face, and she was shaking. He noted how when he’d spoken to her, the monitor seemed to calm.

He snapped out of it when Dr. Amari nudged him. "What?"

"Nick said we should take the restraints off. I was wondering what you wanted to do," she said in an aggravated tone.

Before he could utter a word, he was interrupted. "Please take them off," her voice was strained, yet silvery. He turned back to her, pleading eyes making him melt.

"Well, you heard her. Let's get them off," he said, already walking over. The knots were so tight that he and Nick had to cut the ropes off of her. When Nick questioned why they were, Amari just grumble something about how she didn't want to be killed if she turned feral. The doctor busied herself with replacing the IV bag and messing with the monitor.

"I'm sorry that I panicked, I just..." The woman's words trailed off and she looked down at her hands, looking so scared and frail.

"There's no need to apologize," Hancock said giving her a warm smile that made one of her own begin to form.

"Why don't you tell us your name?" Nick said. When she looked up, she began to realize how odd the two men looked.

The man named Nick really wasn't a man at all. He was a robot with holes in his artificial skin, components visible through them. He looked as if he had taken a beating. She noted the blood on his trench coat, getting a strong feeling that it was hers. The other man, whose name she didn't know, had rough and scarred skin that was pulled taut. Similar to the thing that had attacked her. But she could tell that he wasn't like that creature. He didn't lung for her and was actually capable of speech.  _And he is pretty handsome,_  she thought, a small smile tugging at her lips. She saw Nick watch her knowingly.

"Um, my name? Ebony. Ebony Astor," she replied.

"You don't have to be afraid to ask what we are, ya know," Nick said nonchalantly.

Ebony laughed quietly, a hollow sound. "Isn't that considered rude?"

Nick shrugged, "Well, not many people care if their rude or not anymore. Anyways, I'm a synth. The name's Nick Valentine," he said.

"And I'm a ghoul," the other man said. "John Hancock, at your service. Nice to have you in Goodneighbour, Ebony. Sorry you had to wake up like that. Not really a good first impression, I'd say." He smiled at her, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

She returned his smile, saying something along the lines of 'It's fine.' "So, how exactly did I get here?" She asked, reaching to pet Dogmeat, who was still sitting by her bed, staying quiet throughout the conversation. Nick had opened his mouth to answer, but the loud growl of her stomach cut him off. It was like a switch flipped and the pain of hunger flooded her.

"Let's focus on getting you fed, and then we'll talk," Hancock said, concerned. She readily agreed, and Dr. Amari and Nick both walked out of the room, Amari going to run more tests and Nick going to get food that she was  **literally**  starving for.

Hancock stayed with Ebony and Dogmeat while Nick went to the Third Rail to grab them all a bite to eat. The silence that followed the door shutting was almost painful.

Hancock watched the beauty as she lovingly stroked Dogmeat's fur. Her hair seemed to become even darker than it was before, and he realized that it hadn't just been a trick of the light before. She really did glow, but it was next to impossible to tell at a glance. Her tears had completely dried, too, which left streaks through the dirt and dust on her face. He noticed how she was covered in blood, scratches, and dirt, the trademarks of the 'Wealth, deep wounds to go right along with them. She was so thin, too.

Hancock cleared his throat, catching her attention. Her intense pale eyes made him suddenly nervous.

"So, how ya feelin'?" He asked, genuinely concerned. He could tell that her bandages were going to have to be changed soon. Her eyebrows furrowed as if she as realizing something.

"Much better than I think I should be, honestly. Besides being hungry, I just feel really sore. And confused as all hell. It's been such a fucking roller coaster since I woke up," she spoke the last more to herself than to him and her gaze shifted to her lap. He let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding since she looked towards him.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Huh?" She looked up, his voice snapping her back.

He smiled charmingly. "You said that it's been a roller coaster since you woke up. Do you mean just now or-" The door opened, revealing Nick masterfully balancing three plates on one arm.

"Who wants Salisbury Steaks and mashed potatoes?" He asked cheerfully, handing Ebony her plate first. Once he handed a plate to Hancock and sat down with his, she had already scarfed down a good portion of hers. "Whoa there, you might want to slow down. We don't want you making yourself sick."

She was in absolute heaven, the food tasted so amazing, but she did listen and slowed her pace.

"How long has it been since you last ate?" Hancock asked, and when she looked up from her food she was met with worried filled eyes. She wondered why he even cared about her, she was worthless, nothing. Just some random person with no memory who woke up less than a day ago from an icy slumber. She practically had trouble and mystery written all over her. Of course, neither of the men knew the little information she knew about herself.  _They'll probably want to get as far away from me as possible when they discover how much of a freak I am_ , she thought bitterly, but she didn't know why. It was just instinct, as if someone had done it to her before. Abandoned her.

She heard one of them clear their throat, and she realized that her gaze had drifted so she was just staring off into a blank wall. She fixed her eyes back onto John, "I'm sorry, it's just hard to really focus right now. And I'm not entirely sure how long it's been, but I haven't eaten anything since I woke up. And the computer mentioned something about me and around thirteen others being frozen right after some bombs fell." She didn't know why, but her words just kind of slipped off her tongue. She wished they hadn't when she saw the looks on the men's faces. She could see processors wiring through one of the holes in Nick's skin. Hancock was just in complete shock, jaw dropped. She was trying to figure out what she had said to put them in such a catatonic state.  _Yeah, hearing that she was on ice is probably quite a shock, but to react this way...._

Hancock couldn't believe what he'd heard. It was impossible.  _She can't be from before the war._   _If she is, she's got to be the most beautiful ghoul I've ever seen._ He watched her poke at her food and begin to squirm under their stares of bewilderment.

"Wait, what?" Nick finally said, supper long forgotten. He didn't know what the hell to think after that. He had heard some wild stories in his time, but he knew this one was gonna take the cake. And that there was still tons to uncover. This girl was just one huge mystery. "Okay, let's start at the beginning. Tells us everything that you can remember."

"Well, at first, all I felt was freezing cold and everything was pitch black. And I couldn't breathe, so I started to panic..." Everything since the moment she woke up just spilled out of her. She told them that she had no memory before the moment she woke up. She told them about one of her files in the terminal, leaving out that she had a husband or a son, about how she had no memory before waking up, about her getting a giant shard of glass in her upper arm, about meeting Dogmeat, about how she was attacked by that creature, which was apparently a ghoul like Hancock, just feral. And then she ended the story with where she passed out across from the subway station. They hung onto every word she said like young children at storytime. The looks on their faces now were even more bewildered and somewhat impressed.

Then Nick picked up where she left off, giving a bit of an explanation to Hancock on how he escaped Skinny Malone. As he talked about carrying her to Goodneighbour, she wondered why he would even bother. She was just dead weight for both of the men, literally and figuratively.

Once he finished, she couldn't stop herself. "But why?" she blurted.

The men just sort of stared for a second. "Why? Because you were dying and needed help," Nick said, eyebrows furrowing with confusion.

"But I have nothing to give back for you saving me. I'm useless. And according to that terminal, I'm a  _frea_ k," she said, self deprecatingly. When she told them about the experiments done on her and the others, Nick had sighed and just shaken his head sadly. But in John, she saw anger flash through him, but he quickly went back to his calmer self, though his onyx eyes spoke volumes.

She jumped at his deep, rough laugh. "We're all freaks here, doll. Makes ya unique," Hancock smiled sweetly, understanding how she felt. "And besides, wouldn't the world be a boring place if we weren't?"

"You don't have to repay us, either, so don't worry about it," Nick said. "Out here in the Commonwealth, you help people who need helpin', and hurt people who need hurtin'. Sadly, most don't follow that bit of advice."

Hancock grunted. "You stole my line," he said lowly.

"Well you've got plenty more, so I don't think it'll hurt much," Nick shot back, smirking. Then he looked to Ebony. "Alright, I think you should lay down and get some rest. We've all had enough excitement for one day. It's late and you need to heal."

He rose from his chair and smiled at her. The men both said goodnight and were headed for the door when her panic began to rise again. Just as they opened the creaky wooden door, she called out, "Wait!" They looked back and Dogmeat whined curiously. "Um, can I come with you two? I, uh, know it's a weird question, but I-I don't want to be left alone." She finally stuttered her words out, and was wringing her hands nervously, not meeting their gazes.

"Absolutely not," came an accented voice outside of the door. Dr. Amari was standing with a stern look on her face. "You aren't going anywhere in that condition. Being a doctor, I cannot allow it. I need to keep you here overnight and keep you hydrated and healing." Her face softened slightly when she saw the woman's scared look. Nick and Hancock both looked at her, surprised at her sudden cold-heartedness. She sighed heavily, "But I _suppose_ one of you can stay with her for tonight."

*****************************************************************************************

Hancock watched as her breathing slowed when she finally fell asleep. He had happily stayed with her when Nick said he'd needed to speak with Dr. Amari. He noticed how Ebony's whole body relaxed when he said he would stay. Once Nick and Amari had both left the room, Amari quickly changing Ebony's saline bag, Hancock asked the young woman why she was so panicked about being left alone for the night. He hadn't minded, of course. Honestly, her panic had worried him and made him want to stay even more than he already did.

She had quickly dodged the question, and he let the subject go. Dogmeat had jumped up on the bed, and now had his head laid on her stomach protectively and was snoring lightly. Hancock was left to mull over his Ebony-filled thoughts. He usually thought about a lot at night, seeing as ghouls don't need as much sleep as smoothskins. Yet another wonderful perk. He lazily popped a few Mentats.

He thought about her, about just an hour ago when he had opened the door. Her sitting on the bed, tears rolling down her thin face. When she had looked at him, he had caught something in those beautiful eyes. Fear and sadness.

The fear wasn't just because of the ropes. He had seen that look on drifters' faces almost constantly when Vic was in power. Something had put the fear of death in her. The need to run. And he wanted to know what it was, but he got the feeling she didn't know herself.

Then there was the look of misery behind that fear. A look of utter brokenness, one that seemed to have been rooted in her mind for a long time. It filled him with sorrow for her, and made his heart ache. Hell, it had nearly brought him to tears. He would've laughed at the thought of a single look making him cry, if not for the looming despair. He wanted to know what had caused that too, but once again he doubted she even knew.

He wanted to help her,  _needed_  to, but he didn't know how. From the moment he saw her limp in Nick's arms, he felt the overwhelming urge to protect her. She seemed so lost and alone. Scared and hurt.

He sighed wearily, long and heavy. He wanted to sneak to the State House and grab a book to distract himself with, but feared risking her waking up in darkness with only Dogmeat. So he just propped his feet up on the chair he had positioned across from him and placed his hat to the side.

 _It's going to be a long night,_ he thought as the steady beeping of her heart monitor provided some kind of distraction.


	3. The Pain Of Nightmares

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, it's a short chapter. Please enjoy, though!

_**Friday, July 29th, 2278 (Around 4 A.M.)** _

 

Piercing pain coursed through Ebony's head, and she sat bolt upright, hands moving to cradle her head. She distantly felt Dogmeat jump to attention. She let out a chocked sob and heard the rustle of someone standing. The pain was so immense that she was seeing bright white spots. Tears continuously rolled down her face.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and recoiled immediately to the corner of the bed she was on. "Woah there, Sunshine. It's just me, it’s Hancock. Are you okay?" His rough voice washed over her, soothing her. She continued to hold one side of her head, the pain slowly dulling. When her blotched vision finally cleared enough, she was able to make out John's silhouette in the dim light.

"Sunshine?" He whispered the nickname when she was able to look up at him. He could see tears rolling down her cheeks and her chest was rising and falling rapidly. The sight made his heart clench.

He had heard her start to squirm in her sleep, occasionally letting out incoherent mumbles. He was about to go check on her when he heard her sit up and cry out in pain. Now he was standing at her bedside, hand still outstretched.

She was looking up at him with wide eyes, lips quivering. After a shaky breath, she practically threw herself into his chest, hands balled into his ruffled shirt. He tensed, not knowing how to react at first. No one ever really wanted to touch a ghoul, much less throw themselves into one's arms. He tentatively wrapped his arms around her shaking form.

"John..." she said between sobs, sounding small and scared. It made him freeze. No one called him John, not even Nick, and he's a longtime friend. He'd actually gotten to the point that he didn't want people to call him by his first name. But when she said it, he fucking loved it. He looked down at the broken beauty he was holding, and he  _fell hard._ He knew he'd love this girl until the ends of time.

 _But she'll just leave,_  a small voice in the back of his head said. He shook his head and ignored it.

"Ebony?" He said, trying to get her attention. When she looked up at him, he continued. "What's wrong?" The question was just above a whisper. He moved a few loose strands of soft hair from her face.

She half-sobbed, half-sighed. "I-I don't really know," her voice was incredibly small. "I think I had a nightmare, and then I woke up with such a horrible headache. It was like someone was stabbing my brain with an ice pick over and over." She let out another shaky breath and then her eyes widened. She pulled back, much to Hancock's disappointment. He felt _empty_ without her.

"I'm so sorry," she began quickly, to which he raised what used to be an eyebrow. "I didn't mean to wake you up, and then I got your shirt all wet, and I-"

Hancock raised his hands, laughing softly, a sound that sent chills down her spine. "It's fine, it's fine. There's no need to apologize," he said, smiling. For a quick moment he let his guard down in the dim light, and she saw something close to sadness in his eyes, but it quickly disappeared. “Besides, I don’t really sleep that much,” he said when she was about to object. He reached up to brush away her tears, and she leaned into his scarred hand instinctively.

_God, he's so warm._

They stayed like that for a moment, her leaning into his touch and him not being able to believe it. Then he quickly backed away, heart racing, and he swore he could hear her  _whine_  at the loss of contact.

"I'm going to go get Amari. You may have accidentally jostled the IV needle," he said hurriedly. He saw her nod slowly and then he left the room with a "Be right back."

"God, I feel like a fucking teenager," he growled to himself, hurrying down to Amari's quarters. The Memory Den was quiet at such an early hour, and Irma was still asleep upstairs, meaning no one saw him all flustered. He didn't know how just a simple touch like that made him all jittery. It never had before, but with her...

Before he got lost in his thoughts, he arrived at the doctor's door and knocked. After a few long moments and a couple more knocks, Amari appeared in the doorway, sleepy eyed and in a simple shirt and jeans instead of her usual lab coat. "You have to give me a moment to get dressed, jeez," she mumbled, squeezing past him and already heading up the stairs. He followed after quickly and explained what had happened, minus some parts, as the doctor just nodded along.

*****************************************************************************************

Ebony sat on the bed, legs crossed. She couldn't figure out what was worse: the nightmare she had, the headache that followed it, or the awkwardness just a few moments ago. She quickly decided that the nightmare took the prize.

Her head still pounded as it played over and over in her mind. The shadowy figure standing over her menacingly, the broken lamps and pictures, among other things, thrown around the room. In the dream, she could hear her pulse racing wildly, felt blood trickle out of her nose and some more from her mouth. Then the figure raised its fist.  _His_ fist. Then the fist flew down to her, but just before it made contact, she had woken up crying from pain and fear. She felt like she should've known the person standing above her, had the same familiar yet unfamiliar feeling she had gotten the night before when she was tied up. The need to run, to get away from someone, to get away from  _him._

_But who's him?_

Dogmeat scooted closer to her on the bed, so she began to pet his soft fur. She looked over at John's red frock coat, and smiled. She thought back to what he had called her moments earlier.  _Sunshine._ Her smile widened at the nickname.

She felt so unnaturally comfortable around him, like he could protect her from everything. Then she sighed, thinking about how nervous he had gotten when she leaned into his hand. He didn't seem like the kind of guy that got really nervous about anything. Definitely not the kind to make up a stupid excuse to leave, although when she looked down she did see that the needle was a bit askew.

She felt bad for messing it up and for John having to go get Dr. Amari to fix it.  _You've always messed things up,_  a voice nagged at the back of her mind, and she began to think about how it was right. She felt like she'd messed things up her entire life, but it was a life she couldn't recall. A life that wasn't hers.

She felt something warm and thick rolling down her right arm, and she looked over in the dim light to see that most of the stitches had broken, blood beginning to trickle out. She was about to begin inspecting the gashes on her legs, which had been bandaged because they were so deep, when the door opened, flooding the room with light once again.

"Good morning," the doctor said nicely as she walked over to fix the IV, as well as turning off the heart monitor. "Well, I'm glad you didn't end up pulling it completely out." She straightened the needle and smiled.

"Where's John?" Ebony asked quietly, seeing that he had not come in the room with Amari. She began to get nervous, again not knowing why.

"Oh, he just stepped out to take a quick smoke break," Amari said, reassuringly, as if she had sensed Ebony’s growing anxiety. She began to unwrap the dirty bandages on her legs and rewrap them with clean ones.

"Um, I'm sorry, but a lot of the stitches in my arm broke," she said almost too quiet to hear. Ebony watched the doctor nervously, scared she was going to get mad. Amari just leaned over to look at the damage, nodded, smiling at her, and went to a medkit to grab a needle and string.

"Alright, so you have a choice," Amari said as she pulled up a rolling chair to the right side of the bed. Dogmeat switched to her left, and curled up to her, whining slightly. "I can give you Med-X and knock you back out while I do this, or you can choose not to take the Med-X and let me do it while you're conscious. That second choice, put simply, will hurt like a bitch."

Ebony swallowed a lump in her throat.  _At least she's straight with me._  Unwilling to go back to that nightmare, she refused the drug.  _On the bright side, I won't wake up like before and rip them again._

Dr. Amari nodded, cleaned the wound of the fresh blood and broken stitches, and poised the needle just above her skin. "Don't bite your tongue." And with that she plunged the needle into her skin.

Ebony cried out, holding onto the scruff of Dogmeat's neck. Amari was working as fast as she could but it was  _so fucking painful._  Hot tears rolled down her face for about the fourth time in the last twenty-four hours.

"Finished," Amari's voice was sympathetic. "I'm sorry for the pain." She continued with slowly bandaging the wound as Ebony caught her breath, Dogmeat looking up at her with big, worried brown eyes.

*****************************************************************************************

Listening to every cry of pain coming from her was torture, but Hancock knew it was ten times as torturous for her. Once he heard Amari say she was finished, he rose from where he'd been sitting by the door. He had just come back from the fastest smoke ever and heard them talking, her asking where he was, her telling Amari about the ripped stitches, and then her refusing to take the offered Med-X. That's when he knew he didn't have the guts to go in. He knew it was spineless, but if listening was that painful…

The door swung inward and Amari nearly collided with him. "Woah, sorry 'bout that, Mayor," she said, not waiting for his response, and instead hurrying down the hall with dirty bandages to dispose of.

Hancock just shook his head and smirked, walking into the room. She was wiping away fresh tears, and repeatedly telling Dogmeat that she was okay. Then she stopped suddenly and whipped her intense gaze to him, almost making him stumble back. Her eyes began to widen. She seemed to have completely forgotten about the pain.

_"MAYOR?!"_


	4. A Small Step To Lower Levels

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, this is a long ass chapter, so there's bound to be typos. If you see any, let me know. As I mentioned before, I always welcome constructive criticism. Also, things will begin to move much faster in chapters to come. ENJOY!
> 
> PS: I've sort rearranged the architecture of the State House. Sorry, it was an accident! I kind of like this version better, though. Helps me around some big problems that I would've had if I'd kept it the same. Again, so sorry! I've already taken a different turn away from the original story, so what's a few structural tweaks, eh?

_**Friday, July 29th, 2287 (Around 12 P.M.)** _

 

Ebony carefully planted her feet on the floor, desperate to get up and move now that Dr. Amari had removed the IV. The cold was a bit of a shock, but she got used to it. A little cold was fine with her as long as she got the fuck out of that bed.

She thought back to earlier when she'd found out that Hancock was mayor. She was extremely surprised, but then realized that she really should have guessed he was pretty important much earlier. He had that kind of air about him: almost regal, used to giving orders but also to giving help where it was needed. A small smile tugged at her lips when she thought about the way he had so gently wiped away her tears earlier.

He had to go after she ate, saying something about mayoral duties to attend to, so it had been her and Dogmeat for the last few hours, Amari coming in at several intervals. She looked over at the shepherd who was sitting next to her waiting patiently. Breathing deeply, she placed one hand on the edge of the mattress, the other gently onto Dogmeat's back. Slowly, she pushed her incredibly sore body up into a shaky standing position. She was able to get one step in before she painfully face planted into the floor.

She rolled onto her back with a loud groan, Dogmeat coming up beside her, probably wondering what the hell she was doing. Heavy footsteps hurried down the hall and closer to her room.

_Well, shit._

The door opened at an alarming speed and she was just barely able to stop it with her hand before she got whacked in the head.

"Oh, shit. I'm sorry," his rough voice sounded worried. His onyx eyes met hers, that same concerned look he'd been wearing since she first saw him plastered on his face. "What the hell are doing on the floor?" He asked, accidentally sounding angry rather than worried.

He saw her flinch at his tone and immediately felt horrible. He knelt down to her level and caught her eyes. "Hey, I'm sorry, that came out wrong." He helped her stand up and then steadied her against himself. They were awkwardly close with her leaning on him, his arm around her waist and one of hers on his shoulder, but neither of the made a move to pull back. He smiled, more to himself, when he realized how short she was, standing at about a foot shorter than him.

His black eyes were beautiful, hypnotic almost. They expressed more emotion than she'd ever thought possible, and their gaze captivated her. They probably would've stayed like that for hours had someone not cleared their throat behind them.

"Am I interrupting something?" Nick asked, wearing a smirk. Hancock shot him a look, and she quickly tried to stand on her own, attempting to hide the crimson spreading across her cheeks. Both she failed at miserably. She would've taken another nose dive if Hancock hadn't been holding her.  _Why the hell aren't my legs working?!_

"Woah there. Just slow down," he said soothingly as he set her back on the edge of the bed. It was as if he could detect any sign of panic in her and instantly lay it to rest. Yet another flush of crimson rose to her cheeks. "Now, just why were you on the floor?"

She smiled slightly at his hint of an attitude. "Because I don't enjoy just laying down, I like to participate," she said, momentarily becoming more confident and not being able to stop herself. Suggestiveness dripped from her words. She grinned as he bit his lip to keep in all of his more innuendous remarks that were screaming to be freed. Nick just rolled his eyes in a  _not-another-on_ _e_  manner.

She noted that some of the blood stains she had left in his coat had been somewhat washed out, and some of the holes in his neck and the side of his face had been patched up with material similar to the rest of his skin.

"Ya know, it's not smart to be trying to walk  _the morning after_ you were stitched up," Nick said, almost as if he was scolding a small child. "You could tear more of the stitches open, and I heard that that wasn't a very fun time for you."

Ebony looked down at her hands and murmured an apology.

Nick sighed. "It's fine, kid. We just don't want you getting hurt any worse," he smiled at her, and she returned a small smile of her own. "Amari said that you don't need to be on your feet without someone helping you for at least a week, maybe longer. Even if you heal faster than most, she wants to wait until the wounds completely heal before you put a lot of stress on them. She was absolutely astounded at how you had managed to walk so far in that condition, and she expects that your legs are really gonna want a long break after that.”

She groaned internally. She didn't want to stay in this bed. She didn't want to lay around because that meant she'd either be sleeping and risking another nightmare, or that she'd be left to ponder over her nightmare and ask questions no one knew the answers to.

" _But,_ " Hancock said, catching her attention, “our evil doctor has decided to be somewhat merciful." He smirked and winked at her.

After a moment of silence, she knew he was trying to drag it out and get under her skin. "Are you planning on telling me how she is being merciful?"

Hancock casually stood admiring the remnants of his cracked, dirty finger nails. "Oh, yeah. I plan to." Again another moment of silence. Now Nick was starting to get annoyed, but he just watched with a look of amusement.

"This _century_?"

Hancock finally grinned and told her. "She's gonna let us take you over to my place, so you don't have to stay in this tiny room anymore." He paused, seeming a bit nervous, rubbing the back of his neck like the night before. "But only if you want to. We aren't gonna force ya."

_He's worried about my physical well-being and how I feel about all this? But why?_

She pushed those thoughts to the side, and tried not to let her excitement boil over. She looked up at him, smiling. "Of course I want to come with you! Why wouldn't I?"

He sighed internally, relieved that she wanted to come with them.

Then a look of confusion came across her features. "But Amari said I wasn't allowed to walk much? How am I gonna get there?"

"Oh, I'll carry you," he replied immediately, not really thinking about it. "As long as that's okay with you, though," he added hastily when he saw her begin to blush. A thought about how adorable it made her look ran across his mind, making him smile.

She said that him carrying her was okay, but then she looked down, truly seeing how dirty she was. She was covered with blood, most her own but some of it was the feral's, along with a layer of dirt. The faded vault suit hung off of her a little, and there were several tears in it. Her long hair was also matted with blood in a few areas. She smelled metallic and sweaty, and the rank odor forced her to hold back a gag. She started feeling extremely self-conscious.

"Are you sure you want to carry me? I mean, I smell pretty disgusting and look about same," she said quietly, embarrassed.

"Don't worry about that, kiddo. I'll go tell Amari to start heating up some bath water," Nick said, already turning to head out the door. She practically beamed at him.

"Thank you," she called after him. They could hear him chuckle and begin to head downstairs.

Hancock leaned against the wall, swallowed a couple Mentats, and looked down at her, watching her pet Dogmeat so lovingly. After about a minute, she caught him staring. He quickly turned away, cleared his throat, and settled down into a chair in the corner of the room.

She smiled slyly and was going to make some smartass comment, but was interrupted by Nick appearing in the doorway. _Damn, that was fast._

"Bath's ready," he said quickly, outstretching his hands to her. Her smile grew to one of excitement. She took his hands willingly, and he was surprised when she didn't flinch at the touch of his exposed, metal hand.

He told Hancock that he'd be right back, and she told Dogmeat to stay with him. He escorted her down to Amari's quarters, patiently waiting the few times they had to stop when she got tired. He worried about how hard it was going to be for her to get around until she had regained her strength.  _Guess there's always Hancock to help her around. I can tell that that kid's willing to help her any way he can…_  

They took about ten minutes to get to Amari's room, Ebony apologizing profusely every time she had to stop. Amari smiled kindly when she opened the door, taking Ebony from Nick and practically booting him from the room.

"She's so violent," he whispered, chuckling to himself.

*****************************************************************************************

The water felt amazingly hot, and once she was sitting in the ceramic tub, her entire body relaxed and some of the soreness left her. Amari had to undress her wounds and help her out of the annoying vault suit. Now the doctor was scrubbing the grime off of her and out of her hair, since Ebony had spent all the energy she had struggling to get down there.

She was starting to wish she had accepted Nick's offer to carry her the first time she got tired, but she had refused, using the excuse of not wanting to mess up his coat any more than she already had. The real reason was that she didn't want to be any more of a burden than she already was.

She had gotten lost in her thoughts, and was startled when Amari said that she needed to get out. She wanted to groan, but got out as quickly and painlessly as possible when she saw how dirty the water had gotten. She felt clean and smelled a hell of a lot better, and that alone made her ecstatic. And ready to take a nap.

She had a towel wrapped around her while Amari towel dried her hair. She looked down at her naked legs. They were bruised, with deep gouges and tons of stitches, and were unhealthily thin. She felt so exposed, so she pulled them closer to her as inconspicuously as possible.

The doctor wrapped her wounds in silence. She then stood, helped Ebony up and into a fresh set of underwear. Amari then helped her slip on jeans that went past her feet and a flannel that had sleeves that were a mile long. But she smiled anyway, just happy to be in real, clean clothes.

She saw Amari open her mouth to apologize for the difference in size, but interrupted before she could get it out. "Thank you so much. For everything."  _Besides, she can't help that I'm really short,_  Ebony thought, a giggle escaping her.

Now dry and clothed, Ebony was led by Amari back to the room, annoyingly still having to stop a lot.  _Thank God that Amari's patient like Nick._

When they finally got to the room, they found the two men speaking quietly and seriously, Dogmeat laying a Hancock's feet. She blushed deeply when John looked at her and gave a dazzling smile. Amari helped her sit down on the bed. After she left the room, Ebony fell back onto the bed, absolutely exhausted. And she was getting a bit peckish, now that she thought about it.

"Feeling better, Sunshine?" His voice was warm and caring, automatically making her smile sleepily and leaving her feeling all fuzzy inside.

"Mhmm," she mumbled, already drifting. Before she spiraled into sleep, she heard the men whispering about a State House. Then she felt John picking her up gently, and she curled into him, smelling cigarette smoke and something bittersweet. And then it all faded, her wrapped in his warmth and feeling truly safe for the first time since she woke up in that frozen hell.

*****************************************************************************************

_She woke up in the pod again, feeling so cold. **Why am I back here?!**  She looked around her cramped space, panic rising in her. Looking out of the still frosty glass, she saw a man in the pod across from her. He was holding a baby swaddled in a blanket._

_Then she heard voices, and two more people came into view. One was wearing what looked like a white hazard suit while the other, a man, was wearing a leather jacket and jeans._

_"This is the one. Here," a female voice came from the suit and she pointed to the pod across from her._

_"Open it," the man commanded with a deep, gruff voice. The pod swung open, and the man in it was coughing wildly. The baby was screaming, and the woman was reaching out to grab him, cooing at him. The man recoiled._

_"I've got him!" He shouted, and then the woman grabbed the baby and tried to pull him away._

_The man in the leather jacket pulled out a revolver, and pointed it at the one in the pod. "I’m only gonna tell you once. Let the kid go. Now," he demanded threateningly._

_"I'm not giving you Shaun!" The baby wailed and screamed. The man with the gun sighed and pulled the trigger._

_The gunshot rang out deafeningly, and her vision began to go black. The last sounds she heard were the baby's wails and that gunshot reverberating in her head._

_*****************************************************************************************_

_**Saturday, July 30th, 2287 (About 6 A.M.)** _

 

Hancock and Nick were both watching her now. They were in Hancock's office, him sitting at his desk, Nick laying on the couch smoking a cigarette, and her dreaming fitfully on the double bed that was pushed against the wall in the corner.

She was jerking hard in her sleep, mumbling and whimpering. Dogmeat was lying beside her, whining slightly. When she jerked particularly hard, he dodged an elbow, jumping off and moving to lie by the door.

"What do you think we should do?" Nick asked, sitting up and stubbing out his cigarette. The ashtray was overflowing, and Hancock made a mental note to empty it soon. "Should we wake her up or just let her sleep through it?"

"I don't know. We don't want to run the risk of scaring her," Hancock let out a heavy sigh, turning to the window and watching the grey early morning light begin to shine down into the town. "Let's just hope it ends soon and she can actually get some rest."

Not even ten seconds had passed when she sat bolt upright and let out a short, fearful scream. Hancock swiveled back around quickly, and both men were by her side in seconds.

She was cradling her head, and Hancock saw her flinch back from their approaching steps. Her breathing was heavy and uneven, and she was shaking violently. The sight made his heart lurch.

"Ebony?" Nick said quietly, just a whisper, but she still flinched in pain. "Ebony, are you okay? What's wrong?"

His words made more stabbing pains rip through her brain. She couldn't respond, couldn't move, couldn't make any noise. All she could do was cradle her head and let hot tears roll down her cheeks and fall to the blanket covering her lap. She sat there for a moment, being careful not to move and make the pain worse, when the stabbing finally ebbed away.

She let her arms drop into her lap, her breathing ragged, and looked over at Nick and John. They were waiting patiently for her to answer, looks of concern etched into their faces.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, shrinking back against the wall, not meeting their eyes. She felt like such a problem for them, like all she did was worry them.

"Sunshine, you've got nothing to be sorry for. It's not like you chose to have these nightmares," Hancock's voice was soothing, and when she looked up, it was like his small smile chased away the leftover dull throb of her headache. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, it's just," she took a deep breath before continuing. "It's just that yesterday when I woke up, I had a horrible headache. And just now, it was back again. And it hurts like a bitch." She watched as what should've been his eyebrows furrowed and saw the worry in his eyes grow.

"Why didn't you tell us yesterday?" Nick asked. He'd crouched down so that his glowing orange-ish eyes were level with hers.

Hancock remembered that she had said something about it yesterday morning, and he felt like an absolute dick for letting it slip his mind.

"I hadn't thought to mention it. Amari had to fixed the IV and the stitches, so it had just slipped my mind. I hoped it wouldn’t be a reoccurring thing," she explained. She heard her stomach let out a small growl, and she blushed slightly. "Can we get something to eat? I'm starving."

Nick chuckled, and smiled at her. "I'm sure you are. You've been asleep since about one, yesterday afternoon. I'll go get some breakfast," he stood and walked out the door, heading to the Third Rail.

_Damn, I missed lunch and supper last night? If I ever need a long night of sleep, a hot bath is the first thing I’m trying._

*****************************************************************************************

Fahrenheit stood at the door of Hancock's office, pistol drawn and hand on the door knob. She had heard a female scream and came running, but the voices of Nick and Hancock calming down the girl had stopped her.

Hancock had told her about Ebony. About how she was from a vault, how she was experimented on, how she had no memory of before, and how she went through hell getting here. He had mentioned something about her having a nightmare the night before, but he just glazed over the subject, not really knowing much about it himself. She felt bad for the woman; she had been through so much in just three days. Not to mention that she had awoken to a decimated world that she knew nothing about. _That had to be one hell of a shock._

When she heard Nick say that he was going to get food, she turned and quietly walked back down the stairs. She had been on night watch, and she saw that another watchman had taken her place, preparing for the day shift. He acknowledged her with a nod, and she turned back around, trotting up the steps, passing Nick. At the top of the stairs, she walked to the living area and collapsed onto one of the large red sofas.

*****************************************************************************************

Hancock watched as Ebony looked around the room tentatively, just a hint of confusion showing.

"We're in the State House, if you're wondering. Remember how I said we'd take you to my place last afternoon? Well, this is it," he said, gesturing to the room. "I'll give the grand tour of the rest of the place once you’re up and walking around, if you want."

"I'd love that," she said, smiling up at him. She looked around the office, taking it all in. She was sitting on a double bed with a couch across the room. In front of the couch was a coffee table with several red inhalers, some small tins, and liquor bottles scattered about its surface. There was a large desk near the back of the room, a window behind it. But what really drew her attention was the bookcase that sat against the wall on one side of the window.

Books filled most of the shelves, which impressed her because she didn't think that many could survive the nuclear apocalypse. Hancock had mentioned something earlier about how it was difficult to find mostly intact books, but next to impossible to find completely undamaged books, although he had managed to gather some. 

_Apparently the love to read doesn't go away when you lose your memory._

Hancock watched her survey the room again, seeming to take in every little thing this time. He was leaning against the wall and getting out a cigarette when he noticed that her gaze was focused on his private little library.

"Is it a safe guess to say you like books?" He asked around the cigarette in his mouth, taking a moment to light it before turning his attention back to her.

She gave a small smile, looking down at her hands. "Yes, I suppose it is. It feels so odd to know you like or dislike something, but not have a memory or reason to connect it to," she said, Hancock picking up on the hint of sadness in her voice.

He walked over to the tall bookshelf, stubbing out his just-lit cigarette in the ashtray on his desk. He crouched down and found the half full shelf where he kept the books that were untouched. Turning his head to her, he inquired, "Do you like Shakespeare?"

When she nodded, he scanned the books and found the only work of Shakespeare's that was in mint condition. The title on the spine was printed with swirly letters, which spelled out _The Twelfth Night._  He grinned at her, walking back and sitting on the edge of the bed.

He held the book out to her, which she took and held gingerly. "So I was thinking. You're not gonna be able to walk around until your wounds heal, so you'll have tons of down time over the next week or two. If you want, you are welcome to read anything you like. Just let me know which books you want and I'll leave them on the nightstand for you. And I'll even read to you when I have extra time on my hands," he said kindly, all the while loving the smile that grew with every second, lighting up her features.

"Really?!" She asked as if she couldn't believe it. "That'd be amazing! And I'd love to have you read to me!" Hancock chuckled finding her sudden child-like reaction amusing.

"And we can start with that one," he pointed at the book sitting in her lap. "Today, if you feel up to it."

She nodded, feeling so excited. She knew it was just a small thing and that most people wouldn't react so enthusiastically, but this could be her escape from thinking about the nightmares. Plus, she'd get to spend time with John. Something about him could calm her instantly and chase away all her fears.

She had thought about telling him the nature of her nightmares, but worried it would just scare him away. That voice of doubt was beginning to get louder, telling her that he didn't really care about her, saying that he was just using her to make himself look like the most kind and caring mayor, and he'd just abandon her when she became useless to him. It was utterly ruining the moment.

She felt tears begin to well up, and was thankful when Nick came through the door with two plates of food, momentarily distracting the mayor. She quickly wiped her eyes and hoped that John hadn't seen that she had been in the verge of tears.

"Food delivery," he said with a smile as he handed them both their plates along with two Nuka Colas. She inquired why he didn't get anything, but he just kind of waved the question off. She supposed he didn't need as much as humans, if any at all.

_If he doesn't **have**  to eat, does that means he runs off a battery? Or that he's solar powered?_

Other than his appearance, he seemed human. He had sentience. She turned her attention to the food, deciding that wondering how Nick worked wasn't as important as the eggs and bacon sitting in front of her, and that she could ponder on it later.

She finished her breakfast quickly, but not fast enough to make her sick. When she drank her soda, it left a warm buzz, even though the drink was cold. It was similar to what she felt in the river, just not as strong. The buzz soon faded, and she leaned back against the wall, sighing happily.

Hancock had moved back to his desk and was eating with disinterest. Eventually, he took a few Mentats, letting the chalky tablets dissolve in his mouth. He kept sneaking glances at Ebony, trying to figure out why she seemed to get upset before Nick came in. Her smile had begun to fade, and he thought he had seen her eyes become bright with unshed tears before he had been distracted. He had noticed her mood randomly became melancholic several times the days before, too. He wished he knew what was on her mind and how he could help her.

She yawned and stretched, and Hancock could tell she was being particularly careful with her wounded arm. He was amazed at how much she could sleep, but then remembered Amari mentioning that she'd be very tired over the next few days since she had a lot of healing to do. He briefly wondered if she was uncomfortable last night since she had fallen asleep in jeans and had an extra layer of bandages underneath that. Then he internally cursed himself because he had forgotten that he was supposed to go get Dr. Amari so she could change Ebony's bandages.

"Hey, Nick," Hancock got his attention and waved him over.

"What?"

"Did you happen to stop in and tell Amari that Ebony was awake?"

"Yes, actually," Nick smirked, giving Hancock a knowing look and continuing on at a whisper level. "I'm guessing you forgot? Were you a little  _too_ distracted by her this morning?" Hancock glared at the detective. Nick just laughed quietly. "Amari said she'd be up in about fifteen minutes, and it's been around fifteen minutes, so she should be getting here any minute now."

Hancock nodded. "Is she bringing something else for Ebony to wear? Something that may be a little more comfortable to sleep in than jeans?" He looked over at the young woman to see that she had dozed off still propped against the wall, leaning to the side just a bit. He hated that she was going to have to wake up in just a minute. She looked so content and peaceful right now.

"Possibly," Nick said, still wearing an amused smirk. "If not, she can just sleep in one of your shirts. Hell, it would be close to a nightgown on her with how thin she is. Not to mention that she's pretty short, too."

Hancock grinned at the thought of her in one of his shirts, miserably failing to keep them pure. _Shit, you can’t think about her like that you idiot!!_ "You're saying this just to torture me, aren't you?" He asked, shooting a look at Nick.

"Yep."

A knock caught their attention, and Nick went to open the door. Amari stood on the other side with several rolls of bandages, a couple of vials, and no extra clothes. She walked into the room, set the bandages and vials down on the nightstand, and turned back to the men. Hancock was now standing in front of his desk.

"Glad you could make it, doc," Nick said with his usual nonchalance.

"I'm gonna need you two to leave," Amari said, ignoring the greeting. Hancock noted how she really had only three moods: blunt, brief, or benevolent. "Privacy matters. I'm sure you understand."

"Ah, well, before we go, Hancock wanted to get her something more comfortable to sleep in, so," he said, turning his attention to Hancock, "go get her a shirt." Hancock wished he could smack the stupid smirk off the damn synth's face, but instead he just went into the other room, feeling Amari's suspicious stare on the way out.

Hancock wished Ebony didn't make him so nervous, then Nick wouldn't have anything to torture him with. He wondered  _why_  she made him so nervous. He'd never really been nervous around women his entire life, but with Ebony, it was different.

He fished a gray shirt out of the wardrobe in his  _actual_ room. He had moved a second bed into the office just in case he got too high or drunk to walk straight, which has happened several times.

He gave the shirt to Amari and ushered Nick into the living space to the left of his office. Fahr was passed out on one of the couches so he grabbed a nearby blanket and hastily threw it over her.

Nick sat down on the opposite couch while Hancock leaned against the counter that was littered with Jet and Mentat tins among other things.

While they waited, Nick teased him about Ebony and mentioned to him that he would have to leave that afternoon. Nick kind of felt like an older brother to Hancock, much better than his biological one. He hated having to see him go, but understood that he needed to get back and let Ellie know that he was still kicking.

"Alright, you can go back in," Amari called, already hurrying down the stairs, blood samples in hand, dirty bandages already discarded.

"Does that woman ever slow down long enough for someone to thank her?" Hancock asked as they went back into the office.

"Not that I know of," Nick answered, laughing.

When they went back in, Ebony was already fast asleep. Hancock's gray shirt was way too big for her like Nick predicted, but Hancock thought that she looked beautiful, verging on sexy. He avoided Nick's smirk and hurried to his desk.

Over the next three hours, Hancock couldn't get a damn thing done. Every little movement she made drew his attention, and he had to get up several times to replace the blanket she kept kicking off. He wondered if she was in a lot of pain when he saw the blue, almost black, bruises peeking out from underneath her bandages. Nick had left to go to the Memory Den, taking Dogmeat with him, after around the second hour, but he got a kick out Hancock's discomfort.

There were times when she'd let out soft moans, usually when she finally found a position she was comfortable in. Those were times when "Rotten Tatos" became his mantra. He had already said the words over and over at five different times when she began to groan in pain.

She started to jerk, tossing and turning.  _Shit, what am I supposed to do?_

He was conflicted on what to do, not wanting her to wake up like she did last time but also not wanting to scare the fuck out of her. Soon, he decided that he should try to wake her, but he was going to have to be extremely careful.

As he walked over, he saw that she had kicked the blankets off again. She was groaning and whimpering.

"Sunshine?" He whispered, making sure not to touch her yet. Her eyebrows only furrowed into what seemed like confusion, and she still continued to jerk. "Sunshine?" He whispered a little louder. She immediately reacted and calmed down.

_Well then, didn't know my voice had that effect..._

She had her head turned towards him, so he could see the left profile of her face. He had been smiling and thinking about how beautiful she looked when he saw it. There was a thin scar running from about the nape of her neck to below the start of her jawline, and her long hair had hidden it perfectly. It didn't seem like the kind of scar someone could get from an accident based on the area it was in. It looked like someone had taken a knife and attempted to slit her throat.

He was getting pissed for the third time in as many days. Someone had hurt her, and he knew that it was obviously a scar she'd been given before the war, but it still made him seethe. He wondered how sick you would have to be to hurt her. She was so sweet and still seemed innocent, although she was making some pretty suggestive remarks yesterday. He had crouched down to look at her face and see if there were any more scars that had been hidden by her hair when, out of nowhere, her eyes flew open and she scuttled backwards. It had caught him so off guard that he fell backwards onto his ass, hitting the ground before he could catch himself, a stream of curses coming from both of them.

"Honestly, I'm not sure whether I should ask what the hell you were doing so close to me or if you're okay, or if I should just decide to go back to sleep," she said, exhaustion filling her voice. She appeared back at the edge of the bed as Hancock got up and dusted off his coat.

"Sorry, you were squirming around in your sleep, and I was worried. So I came over and was gonna wake you up, but you seemed to calm down when I did," Hancock said hastily. He knew he shouldn't have tried to wake her up. Then he wouldn't have seen the scar and scared the shit out of her by getting so close. He was internally debating if he should ask her about it.

She looked up at him sleepily, an eyebrow raised, but let the subject go. He was rubbing the back of his neck again, and she thought about how cute the nervous habit was, feeling a small smile tug at her lips. Then her thoughts turned to the nightmare she'd been having.  _Jeez, I can't even take a nap without them._

This one had been similar to the first, the shadowed man standing over her, objects thrown around what looked to be a living room. Except this time it ended before he could raise his fist. She guessed that was when Hancock had come over. And there was really only a dull throb in her head. He cleared his throat awkwardly, recapturing her attention.

"Not tryin’ to sound creepy or anything, but did you know that you have a scar on the left side of your neck? I, um, noticed it just before you woke up," Hancock said.  _A scar?_ She furrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head slightly. Then something occurred to her.

"Well actually, I haven't seen myself at all since I woke up. I've got no idea what I look like, other than the fact that my hair’s black" she said.

"Well, we can fix that," Hancock said, smiling. He told her he'd be back, and went into the living area. Fahrenheit was still out, so he kept quiet. There was a floor mirror in the corner of the of the room that was only slightly dirty.

It was light when he picked it up, so he was able to easily sneak back to the office without making a noise. He laughed a bit at Ebony's confused face as he moved it through the doorway. Once he set it down and looked at her, he saw that her eyes were extremely wide and her mouth was hanging open slightly.

She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Her eyes were so bright and blue, and her lips were naturally a deep red. Her pale skin amplified the colors, and soft hair that was blacker than Hancock's eyes framed her face and cascaded down to her lower back. She was very thin, Hancock's shirt rather loose on her, but she had expected that.

She felt a wisp of denial, as if a voice from the past was insisting that the woman in the mirror wasn’t really her.

"Sunshine?"

Hancock's gravelly voice snapped her gaze from the mirror. He was looking at her, trying to discern her reaction.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied with a reassuring smile. "It's just that it wasn't what I was expecting I guess. I look kind of...odd." She looked down at her hands subconsciously, something she'd been doing quite a lot since she woke up.

Now it was Hancock’s turn to gape. He wasn’t able to believe what she was saying. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Hancock asked, making sure to keep the bite out of his words. He was still completely dumbfounded. "Ebony, you…. you're absolutely gorgeous, completely breathtaking! Hell,  _I'm_ the one that looks odd! You're the exact opposite of odd!"

He watched her turn bright red and smile sheepishly. Hancock realized how young and innocent it made her look, and ended up smiling too.

"You really think so?" He heard the traces of self-doubt in her question. His heart wrenched because he understood that feeling; he dealt with it every day.

"Of course I do, Sunshine. And nothing could ever make me think any differently," he answered with complete honesty. The statement made him realize that he would do anything for this woman, especially if it stopped her pain, physical and emotional. He would always be there for her.  _God, I've fallen harder than a clumsy behemoth!_

She beamed up at him, still blushing. He realized he'd been staring, so he looked away and cleared his throat. Hancock moved the mirror into the corner, looked back at her, and inquired what she wanted to do until lunch.

She thought a moment before replying, giddy because of his compliments. "Can we maybe start reading _The Twelfth Night_ together?" Her voice sounded happy and hopeful, and he couldn't help the grin that spread across his face.

"Certainly, doll," he said as he moved a chair to the side of the bed. He picked up the Shakespearean work off his desk. Sitting in the chair, he propped up his feet on the bed with the chair leaning off its front legs.

She couldn't wait for him to begin reading to her, but she tried to contain her excited bouncing. Before he began reading, she suddenly needed to tell him something.

“Hey, John,” she said quickly, getting his attention. When his onyx eyes met hers, she smiled. “I don’t think you look odd.” She watched as a slow, genuine smile grew on his face.

“Well, thank you, Sunshine. I’m afraid a lot of people would disagree with you, though,” he replied sadly. She wanted to tell him that they could go shove their disagreements up their asses for all she cared, but she bit that snarky opinion back.

“Well, I don’t think you do.”

He chuckled and turned his attention to the book, smiling softly. He seemed to purposefully take as long as possible to flip through the pages, as if he was teasing her. She was ready to scream when he finally opened to Act 1.

"If music be the food of love, play on..." His voice was so soothing to her and soon it was like she was in a trance, under a spell, hanging onto every word and never wanting it to end. All of her troubles fell away as he read on, relaxing her completely.

*****************************************************************************************

All too soon, they had to stop. It was eleven o'clock, and she suddenly felt very hungry. She had been so entranced that she hadn't even noticed the gnawing feeling.

Hancock told her he'd run down and get some food for them and check the Memory Den for Nick and Dogmeat, who still weren't back.

For some reason, the idea of her being left alone, even if it was just a little while, absolutely terrified her. She wanted to tell John no when he asked if she would be okay alone, but she also didn't want to cause him any more trouble. He had hesitated, as if he could see through her lie, but then told her he’d be back shortly and walked out of the room.

When Hancock walked out of the State House, everyone nearby looked at him. That was one downside to being mayor: You always attract attention, good and bad. He started walking towards the Memory Den, acknowledging the Watch guards with a nod.

The smell of cheap perfume was particularly strong today. Once he rounded the corner, Dogmeat saw him and ran up excitedly. Hancock laughed and petted the Shepherd. When he looked up from the dog, he saw Nick and Amari speaking quietly over her terminal. He strolled over, and Amari looked up, a bit shocked, as if she hadn't realized he was there.

"Oh, Mayor, I'm glad you came. Saved Nick the trip to get you," she said, seeming a bit tense.

"I was just wondering where Nick's been all this time. Seems to be that he's spending a lot of time here these last few days," Hancock said, raising what used to be an eyebrow at the man in question.

"Malone's men really did a number on me, so she's been helping me get all my systems functioning correctly. We've also been discussing our girl," Nick said. Hancock got a bit worried at the way he said that last sentence.

"Is something wrong?"

Amari shrugged slightly. "Possibly. Her wounds have been healing as expected. Within the next few days, she should be able to get up and walk as long as she has help. But then there's this," she gestured towards the screen. There were three different dates with three different numbers listed beside them. "I've taken a small blood sample from her every day. The first day, she had 1286 rads. The second, 1027 rads, and then today's, which was 830 rads. Her radiation level is dropping quite a bit every day, and I'm not entirely sure what will happen when it gets too low."

"Do you think it could hurt her?" Hancock asked.

"Maybe. Nick and I were wondering if she has been exposed to such high levels of radiation over a long period of time. If so, it could hurt her greatly. Her body's been so used to extreme amounts of it that this drop could very seriously affect it. Possibly even kill her." It felt as if his heart stopped at that sentence. "I believe it would be similar to an addict that just quits cold turkey. Her levels aren't exactly tapering off slowly. That sudden change could possibly shock her body too much." He stared for a moment, processing.

 _"Well, what the fuck are we gonna do about it?!"_ Hancock practically yelled once he was able to find his words. Nick, Amari, and even Dogmeat, wisely backed away from him.

"We just need to watch her for now, keep an eye out for any strange behavior. Her body may just be using the radiation as energy to heal her wounds faster. I'll take a small sample daily, and let you know if it gets below 300 rads, but you two will have to tell me if she begins to act weird."

"But what weird behavior are we supposed to look for?" Nick asked.

"Well, she seems to be using a lot of energy so extreme fatigue may be one." Hancock was getting really anxious; he couldn't just let her die. He cared for her and didn't want to lose her. 

"You still didn't answer my question. How are we supposed to raise her radiation level? Just expose her to high amounts of it?"

"Well, that would be the obvious solution, yes. But we've never had someone that was resistant to the negative effects of radiation, so it could become more complicated," Amari looked as if she just remembered something. "Have you two happened to feel radiation just pouring off of her like other radioactive objects?"

The men nodded. Nick spoke up first. "When I found her and picked her up, it was as if she slightly buzzing, but when I was taking her down to your room yesterday, there was nothing.”

“Yeah. I felt something similar to that when I carried her, too. When I picked her up yesterday, though, the feeling was gone, just like Nick said. Why?”

"Well, earlier I had brought a Geiger counter with me, expecting it to go crazy, but it never made the slightest noise. I don't know how it's possible, but I don't think that she's radioactive. Which is fortunate because that means she won't be detrimental to anyone's health."

"Is there anything else I need to know before I leave?" Hancock realized that he'd been gone for too long, and was anxious to grab some food and get back to Ebony.

"No, I don't believe so. If something important comes up, I'll let you know." With that, Amari turned and headed towards her room.

Dogmeat followed Nick and Hancock out of the Den. "So, are we gonna tell Ebony all that?" Nick asked, eyebrow cocked.

"We probably shouldn't. She might try to act like she's fine when she's not. And we also don't want to make her panic."

Nick nodded, and fished a cigarette and lighter out of his pocket.

"You mind goin’ on back to the State House? Makin’ sure she's okay? I've gotta go get food for her," Hancock said, and Nick nodded, beckoning Dogmeat to follow, then turned back quickly.

"I forgot to mention that I'll be staying for a few more days now that something might go wrong. I'll just have to send someone to Diamond City for me."

"I can get MacCready to go. I'll talk to him once I get to the Rail," Hancock offered, and Nick replied with a thanks. He then turned back to the State House. Hancock walked over to the Third Rail, had a talk with his favourite mercenary, and got their lunches, making sure to grab a little extra something for Dogmeat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, finally done. If the part in the Memory Den was too confusing, here's a small recap: Ebony's body is using the rads as energy to heal faster (I’d like to think that she’s her own nuclear power plant or something), and if her levels get too low, it'll put too much stress on her body and possibly kill her. They are going to watch her and make sure this doesn't happen. {Recap Over} I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The next should be shorter.


	5. Out Of It

_**Tuesday, August 2nd, 2287** _

 

"Sunshine? Ebony?" Hancock gently shook her shoulder. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, trying to wake her without scaring her like last time. When she still didn't respond, he was getting extremely anxious and was on the precipice of panic. She hadn’t had a nightmare either, which worried him even more than if she had.

Over the past three days she had gotten very sluggish, like Amari had predicted. But Ebony didn't just become lethargic. By the night of the second day she was distant and unresponsive, just absently staring, not really hearing what anyone said to her. Hancock got really worried when she wouldn't eat last night. Her rads had dipped to 400, and Amari, Nick, and himself were often busy fervently trying to find ways to help her. He'd even laid off the chems for a while so he could completely focus on her.

"Is she still not waking up?" Nick appeared in the doorway, observing the comatose woman and a very rattled Hancock with great concern. They had been trying to wake her for the last ten minutes. He had only seen Hancock this way just a handful of times, and it put him more on edge than he already was.

"No. I don't know what to do, Nick," Hancock looked up at him, and Nick was even more unnerved by how  _vulnerable_ he sounded. Dogmeat was sitting beside Hancock's legs whimpering.

"She'll wake up eventually. Just keep trying," Nick said, trying to reassure Hancock and himself. "I’m gonna run over to the Den and see if Amari can help somehow." Once Hancock nodded, he went down the stairs and out the back entrance. The air smelled especially foul, and was thick and humid. Electricity seemed to buzz in the atmosphere, hinting at a thunder storm, but he could only see a few wispy clouds in the morning sky.

He walked over, passing many new drifters that had recently walked in from the Wasteland. Some ignored him, others suspiciously staring at him all the way to the Memory Den.

Once inside he was able to breathe a sigh of relief. It always made him a bit nervous to be around the newcomers when he was in Goodneighbour, always had the feeling he was going to get shanked.

Nick tipped his hat in greeting to Irma and headed down to Amari's domain.

"Hey, Doc," he said as he stepped through the open door. She had been hunched over some notes, and her head shot up when she heard him. "We might have a slight problem."

"Ebony?" At Nick's nod she continued while grabbing some supplies. "Well let's go see what this problem is."

Nick held the front door open for her, and she suddenly stopped on the sidewalk.

"Something wrong, Amari?"

"No, it's just that the air feels particularly odd today. It just gave me a rather ominous feeling," she answered, beginning to walk to the State House. Nick furrowed his eyebrows, but kept quiet and followed.

*****************************************************************************************

Hancock almost jumped back when her eyes flew open and she sat straight up, looking momentarily alarmed and kind of clear headed. Without thinking he pulled her into a tight hug.

"Holy shit, I thought you were never gonna wake up," he said, his voice muffled by her thick hair. It was soft and curly, smelling slightly sweet. He then quickly pulled back. "Sorry."

But his apology fell on deaf ears. When he looked into her eyes, he saw that they were dark and lifeless. The alertness she had just had was now completely gone. His shoulders sagged, and Dogmeat whimpered as if he understood what was wrong with her.

Seconds later, Nick and Doctor Amari walked in. Nick felt only a slight relief when he saw that Ebony was awake. She didn't even look up when they walked in, and Hancock's faced was still a picture of worry.  _Wow, he’s in deep. I just hope we can help her, or this will really hurt for all of us._

Hancock explained that she wouldn't wake up at first, and how she surprisingly hadn’t had a nightmare. Amari gave her wounds a quick once over, saw that they had almost completely healed, and drew a small blood sample. Ebony, who usually dreaded the blood drawing, said nothing and didn't even flinch when the needle went in.

"I don't know what we’re going to do," Amari said, sighing. "Those scouts we sent out didn't find nearby locations with a lot of radiation. Which is quite ironic, considering the fact that we live in a nuclear wasteland. It seems that when we want the radiation it isn't there. The only extremely irradiated place I can think of would be the Glowing Sea, but the trip’s sure to kill her." She looked at the men's crestfallen faces. "But we might be able to try something else, although it may be risky."

Hancock looked at her expectantly. "Well, we don't really have any other options."

"We could give her irradiated blood. I can send other scouts back out to look for any glowing ferals."

Nick couldn't restrain a look of utter repulsion. "That's absolutely _disgusting_. Is that _safe_ or, hell, even scientifically possible?!" He glanced at Hancock and saw that he had the same expression.

Amari sighed. "Honestly, I don't know. She's O- so we won't have to worry about incompatibility. I have no idea how her body will react to it, but, like Hancock said, we don't have any other options."

Hancock leaned against the wall and ran his hand over his face tiredly. The past few days had been extremely draining for him, and he felt like he could actually sleep, which was a pretty rare occurrence. “Kind of wishing I hadn’t,” he sighed "Alright. They better fuckin' hurry though." Amari nodded. Hancock looked at Ebony who still sat staring at nothing. "Do you think we'd be able to get her to eat something?"

Amari nodded again. "You should try. I'll go test the blood, and tell the scouts to head out." With that, she cast a glance at Ebony and hurried out the door.

"Do you want me to run down and get some food?" Nick asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Sure. Just get something for her, though. I think Amari made me lose my appetite."

Nick walked out of the room, Dogmeat loping after him. He'd grown rather attached to the detective and followed him almost everywhere now.

Hancock let the door shut quietly, and looked over at Ebony. That feeling of uselessness started coming back and he hated it. He was used to being able to work out any problems and keep his cool while doing it, but it's like she slapped him into a whole other ballpark. He walked over to the edge of the bed, and she hardly even noticed. But when he just barely touched her shoulder to try getting her attention, she flinched back sharply as if he'd scared her.

She looked up at him with wide eyes, but when she seemed to recognize him, she calmed. He thought it was the most movement she'd made in the last few days. She seemed dazed, but had snapped out of her trance for the moment.  _Well, hopefully she'll stay alert long enough to eat._

"Ebony? Are you with me, doll?" He asked, sitting on the edge of the bed cautiously. Hesitantly, she nodded, staying quiet and seeming confused. "Do you think you could eat somethin'?"

Again, she nodded. He chuckled slightly when she gave him a look that said, "Why the hell are you asking? It should be obvious." He felt extremely relieved that she was actually responding in some way. "Well, Nick will be back in a few." He let out a somewhat happy sigh when she gave him a small smile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two hours passed. Ebony had eaten half of her breakfast and Hancock was able to read the rest of Act 3 to her some before she was gone again. Then she just sat there while Hancock sat at his desk doing paperwork. Nick had left about an hour and a half after they got her to eat. Hancock assumed he'd gone to the Memory Den.

He jumped to his feet when Fahrenheit burst into the room, breathing heavily. He saw Ebony flinch just a bit.

"Rad storm, really close," she managed to spit out between pants.

"What are you coming to me for? Everyone knows that they just gotta stay indoors." They had at least one rad storm a month, so he'd made sure that all the Watch knew to get everyone off the streets.

"This one's different. It's huge and the wind’s blowing really hard. Look out the window," she commanded, annoyed that he hadn’t already noticed. When he did, he saw that she was right. The wind was blowing all kinds of small debris around, not powerful enough to move anything very heavy around yet, and, looking past the wall, he saw a hint of green tinted thunder clouds. He had heard some of the wind, but he usually just ignored it. "What do you want us to do?"

"I don't know yet. Let's head back outside and see how bad it is," Hancock was about to head out the door when he stopped and turned towards Ebony. He knew he couldn't take her out with him right now, she was too out of it to hold herself up. Hell, she would still be too weak to walk even if she wasn't off in space. He despised the idea of leaving her alone, but he didn't really have a choice until they assessed the storm. "I'll be right back, Sunshine."

Once out on the street, the wind hit him full force and nearly knocked him over. Holding on to his hat, he looked up at the storm and his jaw dropped. It was about a mile off, and it seemed to be ominously crawling towards the town. He'd read something about these kinds of storms out of sheer boredom. It was a super-cell, with a heaping side of radiation to add to the fun. They were rare pre-war, but they left a path of devastation in their wake. Luckily, it looked like it was starting to break down, but it’d still take a while to do so.

One of the Watchmen nearby got hit by a particularly strong gust and nearly collided with him. “Oh, shit! Sorry, Mayor!” The man had to yell over the wind.

“What do we do?” Fahrenheit yelled, looking up at the dark green clouds.

“Get everyone into the basement of Hotel Rexford,” he shouted back. “I’m going to find Nick and Amari!” He heard thunder rumble in the distance, and with one last glance, he dashed to the Memory Den. As he walked past the memory loungers, he recognized Dogmeat’s bark. He rushed down to Amari’s area to see a very nervous dog and Nick trying to calm him down.

“What’s gotten in to you, boy?” Nick looked up when he heard Hancock approach. He raised his eyebrows in surprise and stopped petting the dog. “What are you doing here? Something wrong?”

“Yeah. We have a huge rad storm heading this way. You guys need to get to the Rexford’s basement,” Hancock said, glancing at Amari. She was hunched over a bunch of papers that were haphazardly scattered on the countertop. She turned to look at the mayor.

“Well, looks like luck’s on our side then,” she said, starting to gather some items.

“You won’t be thinking that when you see it. And how could a rad storm be good for us?” As soon as the question came out, he felt like an idiot for not seeing the obvious. “Don’t answer that. But the wind is strong enough to knock someone over right now. I can’t let Ebony sit outside in that.”

Amari grimaced. “Well, if luck decides to stay on our side, then maybe the storm will calm a bit, and still be over the town when it does.”

“Either way, you guys need to get to the Rexford,” Hancock got a bit annoyed when they didn’t really respond. “Well, what are you waiting for? Come on! I can’t leave Ebony alone for long!”

Immediately, they followed him through the main room and out the front door. On the sidewalk, he turned to face them, having to hold onto his hat yet again.  He got a bit annoyed at how his coat obnoxiously whipped around his legs. He was going to tell them that he’d meet him at the hotel, but was interrupted.

*****************************************************************************************

Ebony felt like her mind was swimming through molasses. Her whole body felt like it was weighted down with cinderblocks, and when someone spoke to her, their words were garbled and she wasn’t able to form words herself. The last few days had felt odd, and she could tell that John and Nick knew something. She completely intended to ask them what they were hiding when her brain decides to come back from vacation.

There were moments when she was more aware, but they ended so quickly.

_It started off with me just being exhausted, but **of course** I also had to basically turn into a zombie._

She had just barely heard Hancock say he’d be back, and her brain began screaming at him, telling him not to leave her. She didn’t want to be left alone. The thought terrified her, and she couldn’t figure out _why._ A voice nagged at her, telling her that he wasn’t going to come back. That he was just going to abandon her like everyone else.

_But who the fuck is everyone else?!_

She began to feel sick and it was getting hard to breathe. She tried several times to focus on taking deep breaths, but her brain was still slow and seemed to be doing everything other than what she wanted.

_I have to get to John. I need him._

She heard hurried footsteps downstairs, but couldn’t call out. Her mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton, so she willed her body to move to the edge of the bed. She slowly and shakily stood up, legs seeming to turn to jelly. She took two hesitant steps and was able to support herself on the doorframe. Her struggle to breathe was beginning to make her panic, which didn’t help the fact that she was having to focus everything on moving her legs. She was able to shuffle just a bit further, and heard more heavy footfalls.

She had just pushed off the doorframe when her legs gave out. The last thing she saw was the bannister, not the floor surprisingly, rushing towards her and she felt a sharp stabbing pain before everything was gone.

*****************************************************************************************

“HANCOCK!!”

His blood ran cold when he heard the panic in Fahrenheit’s voice. She was like him, able to keep her cool and only having a few panicked times. So when she did sound like that, everyone automatically knew something was extremely wrong. He spun around, seeing that she had already run up behind him. She wore a worried expression.

“It’s Ebony. You have to come with me right now,” she shouted. She looked to the trio standing behind him. “Go to the Rexford’s basement. We should be down there soon.” The wind had calmed, but only slightly. They still needed to get everyone in town into that basement. Some rain was already beginning to blow into the streets.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Hancock ran after her to the back entrance of the State House. His mind raced with thoughts of all the things that could be wrong. They burst through the door, boots thudding on the wood floor.

A familiar smell made him freeze in his tracks. Ebony’s blood. He knew it was hers; her blood didn’t smell like most others. There was the normal metallic smell, but underneath that there was something odd. It was almost sweet.

He looked towards the top of the stairs and the lump started to form again. His heart dropped to his knees and there was a bone chilling feeling coursing through him.

Her hand was hanging over the top step, completely limp. Just the slightest trickle of blood was running down beside it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hate me for the cliffhanger..... Please......


	6. No Rest For The Merc

_**Tuesday, August 2nd, 2287** _

 

All MacCready wanted was a few days off. He hadn’t been to Diamond City in years, and he wanted to at least try to enjoy it. Hancock had paid him to tell Ellie that Nick was okay, so he left at dawn the next day. When she asked why Nick hadn’t come back, he really didn’t have an answer, which only seemed to annoy her. He had heard rumors of the mystery woman that Nick and Hancock had been helping, but he didn’t have the full story, yet.

On the first night, he’d decided to head over to Power Noodles before he rented a room at the Dugout Inn. He had just gotten his bowl of noodles when he heard yelling behind him. Some guy was accusing his brother of being a synth and was waving a gun in the “synth’s” face. A crowd was beginning to gather, and MacCready watched with them, wondering just how this was going to end. He casually lit a cigarette as the Diamond City guards ordered that accuser to put his weapon away. The brother was trying to convince the other that he wasn’t a synth, but that only seemed to piss the guy off even more. He was about to pull the trigger when his head blew into bits. _Well then…_ The guard who fired the shot yelled at the people, telling them that there were no synths in Diamond City and that they needed to return to whatever they were doing before the skirmish. The accused brother was kneeling by the dead man and crying. MacCready decided that he didn’t have much of an appetite anymore, so he just headed to the Inn.

The second day, Piper, who had apparently gotten news that he was in the city, decided to bug him.

“So, MacCready, what brings you to Diamond City? Shouldn’t you be sitting in the Third Rail, or doing whatever your current employer wants you to do? If you have an employer right now, that is.” She smirked at him.

_Can’t I just have a drink in peace?_

“I’m actually on a job right now, for your information. Well, technically, I was on one yesterday. Hancock wanted me to tell Ellie that Nick was okay,” he said, taking a swig of his beer.

“Oh, yay,” she said with pretend excitement. “How’s my second least favorite mayor doing?”

“He’s fine. Now what do you really want Piper?” He knew that there was usually a catch with Piper, especially when she’s pretending to have a nice conversation with you.

She frowned at him. “Fine. I want to know if there’s any juicy stories I could write about in Goodneighbour.” She sighed when he asked why. “McDonough was pretty pissed at that last article I wrote on him. He even went as far as trying to lock me out of the city. So I decided I might not want to print anymore articles about him for the time being. That doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop digging up information on him, though. I just thought Goodneighbour may have something interesting for me to cover during my McDonough hiatus.”

“Well, there might be,” he said, thinking about the rumors he had heard.

“Really now? Fill me in.”

“You’d have to go to Goodneighbour and talk to Hancock himself, if you wanna know.” She gave him an irritated look. “Hey, there are just some rumors flying around the town right now. Besides, I’m not even sure if any of them are true, and honestly, I don’t want Hancock to be angry at me for telling you. That man’s my main form of income.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him, and seemed to be debating whether or not to pry some more. She sighed. “When are you going back?”

“Um, what?”

“I’m going to Goodneighbour when you go back. Everyone knows there’s a big group of Super Mutants around there, so it would be stupid to go alone. We both benefit. You’ll have someone to cover you, and I might have a new story. So when are you leaving?”

“You aren’t gonna let me refuse to let you come, are you?”

“Nope.”

He sighed and swallowed more of his beer. “Fine. I’m leaving tomorrow at noon. I’ll come to your office when I’m ready to go, I guess. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to drink alone right now.”

She smiled. “Alright, I’ll leave you to the booze. Thanks, RJ.” She swept out of the Dugout, and MacCready quite shamelessly admired her ass as she went.

And today, there was a rad storm. The biggest he’d ever seen, actually. It was around eight, and rain was relentlessly pounding on the roof of the Inn. He could hear the sharp whistling of aggressive wind. A lot of people were in bar, waiting out the storm by drinking themselves stupid. The only reason MacCready was sitting pointlessly in his room and wasn’t out there drinking with them was because he didn’t like the idea of being buzzed when he was about to head out. Usually, it ends up throwing off his aim, which can be fatal, especially with Super Mutants.

The storm lasted for about two hours, slowly crawling northeast.

_Great, it’s headed towards Goodneighbour. Just fu-reaking wonderful._

He decided to give the storm some extra time to pass before he and Piper headed out. He walked over to Publick Occurrences and told her that they’d be leaving around two instead.

When the time finally came and he was sure that the green clouds had passed Goodneighbour, he and Piper began the trek towards the town of drifters.

_I wonder what’s gonna happen next. Maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up to giant snakes in the town. I doubt it would surprise me, considering what all’s happened in just the last three days…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you guys think I should make RJ and Piper a couple? Please give feedback!! I hope you enjoyed! We'll be shifting back to Goodneighbour in the next chapter! :)


	7. Talks in the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am soooo sorry that it took so long for me to update the story!!! It seemed like as soon as I got time to write I'd always have to do something else. But either way, long chapter, so please enjoy and tell me what you think!

**_Tuesday, August 2nd, 2287_ **

 

_No._

His feet pounded up the stairs, the thuds echoing hollowly throughout the building. Fahrenheit was right behind him. The smell of her blood was wafting into the air.

_Please no…_

At the top, he saw her limp body lying there, face down with her hand dangling off the step. Blood was pooling by the right side of her hand, and was beginning to run over the edge of the top step.

_Oh, **please** be okay…_

He knelt beside her prone form, gingerly rolling her onto her back. He almost sobbed with relief when she moaned in pain. She had a large gash on the right side of her forehead, the blood flowing into her tangled hair.

He gently moved her upper body into his lap, one hand cradling her head. He felt warm blood running onto his fingers. Her eyes fluttered open slightly. Fahr had gone into the living area, and he could hear her rummaging around.

Ebony’s eyebrows were drawn in pain. She seemed to be struggling to find her voice, and her gaze was dazed and unfocused.

“John?” Her voice was soft, just above a whisper. Fahr had returned with a clean rag and handed it to him. He gently pressed it against the wound, and she had already gone into his office, most likely looking for a Stimpak.

“I’m right here, Sunshine. I’ve got you now,” he said reassuringly, trying to keep his voice from wavering. The sight of her wounded made his heart clench. “What happened, doll?”

Her gaze shifted to his, cloudy blue eyes meeting concerned obsidian ones. “I-I was coming to get you,” her voice quivered. “I felt awful and sick, so the first thing I thought to do was to go find you. I guess I hit my head on the railing when I fell.”

_Dammit! I should’ve stayed, she wouldn’t have gotten hurt if I’d just stayed…_

He looked to the banister, and, sure enough, there was blood on it. He removed the now blood stained cloth and saw that the blood flow had stopped. Fahr appeared beside him, swapping the rag for a stimpak. She cleared her throat.

“I heard her fall, and when I saw her on the ground, I ran to get you,” Fahr said, crouching down to help support Ebony while Hancock administered the medicine into her arm. Thunder shook the building, making the woman jump. Fahrenheit stood and went to the window in Hancock’s office.

Rain was pouring angrily onto the streets and lightning crackled in the dark green sky. She just noticed the sound of heavy rain on the roof and the rough wind pushing against the building.

“So much for getting to the Rexford,” she said to Hancock without turning around.

“We should be safe here. I don’t want to risk going out there just for all of us to be blown away,” Hancock stood up, carefully bringing Ebony up with him. He looped an arm around her waist and helped her into the office and onto the bed. Once he set her down, he inspected the gash for a moment. “Well, luckily the cut isn’t deep enough for stitches. I’m gonna try to find some bandaging for it. Fahr, please stay with her.”

Fahr nodded and lit a cigarette as he hurried into the other room. She looked to the woman. She was prodding at the wound, trying to assess the damage. Fahrenheit noted the way she seemed more coherent than she had been over the last three days.

 _Maybe that hit to the head fixed that problem._ She knew it didn’t though. Hancock, thankfully, kept her filled in on the situation and she knew that Ebony would eventually become disconnected with the world again.

Ebony looked over to her and smiled slightly. When she spoke, her voice was still soft and nervous sounding. “Thank you. For finding me, that is.” Then she looked over to the small pool of blood that had formed by the stairs. “And sorry, too.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Fahr asked, genuinely confused.

“Well, that blood is gonna be a bitch to get out,” she answered. She looked down to her hands and started fidgeting. “And it seems like ever since I got here, I’ve just been causing trouble for everyone.”

“Hey, don’t worry about the blood. There are plenty of other stains throughout the State House,” she said, taking another drag of the cigarette. She almost laughed at the confused look she got in return. “Sometimes some of the Watchmen get a little drunk and rowdy, thinkin’ that they’re ready for a fist fight.” She smiled at the woman when she laughed a bit. “And don’t be thinkin’ that you’re causing us trouble. We want to help you. Hancock, especially,” she muttered the last part more to herself.

The man himself swept into the room carrying gauze and a wet rag. “Did I hear you say that she thought she was causing us trouble?” He asked her, but the question was rhetorical. He looked to Ebony and smiled. “I’ve told you several times that you aren’t a problem and that there’s no reason to be sorry, Sunshine. Now, let’s get that cut taken care of.”

She winced when the cold rag made contact with the wound. He made sure to dab gently and completely clean off all the blood on her face. He hated knowing that it hurt her, but it had to be done. Once the blood was gone, he grabbed the gauze and began to wrap it around her head. He stepped back from her to admire his handiwork, and nodded in satisfaction.

“That should be good, just don’t mess with it.” He smiled at the “duh” looked she gave him. “Are you feeling okay? Do things look blurry to you, or are you dizzy? Still feeling really tired?” He glanced over to the window to see that the storm was a bit calmer, but just barely.

“Yes, no, no, and kind of,” she replied. “Any more questions?”

He thought for a moment, and one did pop into his head. “It’s a random one, but do you know when your birthday is?” He seriously wanted to know. He wondered if she could manage to remember things like dates from her old life.

She looked confused for a moment, now curious herself. “I might,” she said slowly. “October 31st is the only date that feels really important to me.”

“You were born on Halloween?” Fahrenheit interjected.

“I think so.” She raised her eyebrows slightly and smirked “Cool. Halloween is my favorite holiday.”

Hancock was thinking about how much he liked that smirk when yet another question came to mind. “Do you remember how old you are?”

“Well, I know I’m well into my 200s,” she joked, getting both Fahr and him to laugh. “I don’t know really. I might be in my late 20s, considering the way I look.” She furrowed her eyebrows, trying hard to remember. “I think I’m 28,” she finally said, looking up at the pair. It felt good to have at least an idea about herself.

“You’re looking pretty damn good for being around 240 years old,” Hancock said, smirking at her. He saw her blush, and Fahr just rolled her eyes.

A sudden crack of thunder shook the building. Ebony yelped, jumping nearly a foot off the bed. Hancock raised what used to be an eyebrow at her. “Scared of thunder?”

She gave him a defensive look. “No,” she answered quietly.

“Right,” he drawled. He laughed when she stuck her tongue out at him. He walked over and plopped down on the sofa. He sighed and whispered, “God, I’m exhausted.”

Ten minutes passed in silence until Fahr looked out the window, seeing that the wind wasn’t as aggressive. The rain was still pouring, but now it wasn’t blown diagonally.

“I’m gonna run over to the Rexford and tell them that the wind has settled down,” she said, still watching the streets. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Hancock nod.

“I guess we got lucky. Tornadoes usually form in storms like that.” He sighed and rubbed his face. The weariness was growing. “Make sure you take some Rad-X before you go. And be careful.”

Fahrenheit nodded and went into another room. After a moment, he saw her walk down the stairs and out the back door. He then looked over at Ebony. Although she seemed deep in thought, she wasn’t as spaced out as she had been.

“Hey, John,” she finally said after a long moment of silence. “Can I…can I ask you a question?” Hancock noticed the hesitance in her words.

“Of course, Sunshine. You can ask me anything, anytime.”

A small smile tugged at her lips and she seemed to relax a bit. “Um, so over the past few days you could obviously tell that I wasn’t…acting normal. And I get a really strong feeling that you and Nick know why. So, I want to know what the hell is wrong with me and why you didn’t tell me about it. I’ve wanted to ask since yesterday, but...you know…” She watched him, fidgeting slightly.

He sighed and look out the window to see rain still pouring away. “Sunshine, we might want to head outside before I tell you. The storm might pass before we finish talking.” He was looking at her now, seeing her face plastered with confusion.

“It’s pouring down rain outside, John. Why the fuck would we want to go out there.” Her tone made him laugh.

“Well, and I know that sounds crazy, Amari said that you need to be exposed to a shit ton of radiation.” He rose from the couch and walked to the bed, holding out his hands to help her up. “And that storm has brought a shit ton of radiation right to our doorstep.” She was still giving him a skeptical look. “Just trust me, Sunshine. We’ll be under one of the metal awning outside, so you won’t have to worry about getting completely soaked.”

She hesitantly took his hands, and he marveled at how soft and cool her skin felt against his. He realized that all she was wearing was one of his shirts and some shorts Amari had brought by. _That definitely won’t do._ He quickly shook off his coat, and said, “It’s a bit worn, but it should keep you warm enough while we’re out there.” She smiled as he helped her into it. It practically hung off her thin frame, and she was so short that the coat was sweeping against the floor.

He stifled his own chuckle and headed over to his desk. He opened one of the top draws and pulled out the Pip-Boy she had had on her wrist when Nick brought her. He looked up at her to see her watching him with a questioning gaze. “Amari said that the radio receiver in this thing was broken. She fixed it up for you so you could listen Diamond City Radio or something.” She nodded, taking it off his hands so he could easily guide her out the door and towards the stairs.

“Remind me to thank her,” she said. They slowly made their way down the stairs, her stiff muscles screaming at her to accept John’s offers to carry her. They reached the back door and when John opened it, her ears were assaulted with the sound of rain pounding relentlessly on the asphalt.

****************************************************************************************

“So, what you’re telling me here is that there was a huge possibility that I was on the verge of death.” Ebony stated, catching parts of _Maybe_ through the loud rain and looking at Hancock, who was sitting across from her, with a raised eyebrow. She was surprised that she had known the song, not having heard the name with the rain and Travis’s nervous stuttering.

She felt the air buzz with electricity and radiation, and the fatigue was already draining from her still-weak body. She was much more coherent, and felt like she wanted to run a mile.

She watched as he rubbed that back of his neck nervously, staring down at the foot of empty space between them. “Pretty much,” he said. “But we were doing everything possible to avoid that outcome.”

“But why didn’t you tell me, John?”

Hancock was hardly able to meet her eyes. There were breathtaking and kind most of the time, but they seemed to pierce right through him right now. The odd thing was that he didn’t detect any anger from her. It was more annoyance and the determination to know why than what he’d expected. Taking in a deep breath, he forced himself to meet her expectant stare. “Nick and I were worried that you were more likely to try to hide any problems if you had known what to hide. And we didn’t want to scare you by telling you that you might die right after you had made it to safety.”

She sighed. She supposed she could understand that last part. She would’ve been fucking terrified. “Okay. But why did you guys think that I would try to hide any of it from you?”

She saw a weird look flash across his face. “Well, I guess because you seem like that kind of person. We’ve all noticed how you apologize for things that aren’t even your fault. You seem like the kind of person that doesn’t want people worrying about them. The kind that doesn’t want to cause trouble. But you haven’t caused us any trouble at all, Ebony.”

She watched him for a moment, his words rolling around in her head. She realized he was right, that she constantly apologizes, even without thinking. And she realized that she probably would’ve at least tried to hide it if anything was wrong because she didn’t want them to fret about her. But, now that she thought about it, it probably would’ve been impossible to hide it.

She knew he was lying about her not causing any trouble. She knew that she had been nothing more than a problem for him since she’d woken up in the Den. But she couldn’t understand why he would still be putting up with her, still pretending to care about her.

_Just the mayor’s charity case._

The words echoed in her mind, that voice coming back up from the depths. What if she was just his charity case? Helping a broken, useless girl would more than likely give him more popularity with the people of his town. She wanted to talk to him, ask him if that was all she was, all she’d ever be. But she was to scared.

_More like a broken, useless, **scared** girl that will always get left behind._

She began to shiver, not from the wind and rain, but from fear. She didn’t want to be left behind.

She felt John’s coat wrapped around her, almost forgetting that it was there, and it was doing a perfectly good job of keeping her warm. Just like he said it would. The scent of cigarette smoke, whiskey, and that same bitter sweetness that she couldn’t figure out seemed to envelope her.

An arm wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her against its owner, and she went completely rigid, the shivering stopping immediately. She looked up and was met with worried black eyes. She relaxed, not having a choice but to lean into him.

“What’s wrong, Sunshine?”

_Everything._

“Nothing,” she lied. He squinted at her.

“You’re lying,” he deadpanned. “Why were you shaking?”

“I was cold.” He raised his eyebrows. “How do you know I’m lying?”

“Because just a bit ago you said that you were actually getting hot. And you spaced out just now after I said that you were the kind of person that didn’t like causing trouble, and you appeared to be in some pretty deep thought. So, what’s going on in that little head of yours?” After a second, he added, “Was it something I said?”

“No, it wasn’t. You seem to be quite observant today, John,” she said, trying to avoid his first question. _The less of a problem you are, the better…_ He definitely noticed her question dodging, but she supposed he let it slide.

“Today? I’m always observant, at least with people I am. In fact, I think I’m pretty damn good at reading people. Well, I did until I met you.” He hadn’t meant to let that last part slip out, and he instantly regretted it.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked defensively.

“It’s not a bad thing, I guess. It’s just that your hiding thing makes it a bit hard to tell what you’re thinking. But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t noticed other little things you do.”

She raised her eyebrows, genuinely interested. _I wonder what else I subconsciously do…_

“Well then, Mr. Profiler, why don’t you tell me these little things you _have_ noticed.”

He smirked, trying to remember all the little habits and cues he’d picked up on over the last week. “You fidget when you’re nervous, usually twiddling your thumbs or bouncing your leg. You have random changes in your mood, which also makes it a bit harder to figure you out. When you’re bothered by something or upset you get extremely quiet and distant.” Then he remembered something that had been nagging at him for a bit. “And you also flinch every time someone comes near you, like you’re scared they’re gonna hurt you. Why do you do that?” He wondered if maybe it was something he could help her with.

“I…don’t really know,” she said quietly, jumping when Travis’s voice yelled through the forgotten Pip-Boy. She noticed that the rain had let up considerably. She really didn’t know why she always got scared around people, it was just instinct. When she looked back up at Hancock his concerned look had returned.

“You still haven’t answered my question.”

“Which one?”

“What were you thinking about that was so bad that it had you shaking?”

She sighed, scared to tell him the truth. So, she told him the same thing again, hoping that she was more convincing. “Really, John, it was nothing.” That unbelieving look again. “Fine, I had started thinking about a nightmare I had had the other night, but that’s it. I’m fine, John. Nothing’s wrong.” She could tell that he still didn’t believe her, but, after a long sigh, he dropped the subject.

He noticed that the rain had dwindled to nothing more than a lazy drizzle, the pounding on the metal awning overhead had turned into soft pitters. Several inches of rain covered the streets, and he was thankful that they were on a slightly raised platform. “We might want to head back to the State House. Do you feel recharged?”

She smiled. “My battery is at 110%!”

He chuckled a bit, and seemed to consider something for a moment. Sighing, he looked towards the Rexford. “Do you think I could leave you alone for a few minutes? After I get you back in the State House, of course.” She raised an eyebrow at him, drawing his gaze. “You aren’t gonna try to get up and walk on your own again, I mean. I don’t want you to risk getting hurt and not be there to help you, but I’ve gotta go tell everyone that it should be safe to come out soon.”

“Oh, no, I promise I won’t try to get up and move around again. I’m a lot more alert now, and I realize that walking around while your still weak is an extremely stupid idea. Don’t know what I was thinking. So, I swear I won’t move from that bed, Mayor.” She smiled when her chuckled again.

“Alright, come on,” he said once he’d gotten up, extending his hands to help her up. She noticed how he could so easily lift her up.

_Am I that thin or is he just that strong? Probably a bit of both, actually…_

The trek back to his office was much faster than the one down, and her muscles weren’t as sore as before. She was glad to see that the radiation had apparently increased her mobility.

After making her promise that she wouldn’t move again, Hancock swept out of the building, feeling odd without his coat, which Ebony still had. The green clouds had passed, but the air stilled buzzed with rads. Once he reached the Rexford, he went straight to Nick, who was leaning against the reception desk. The drifters watched him as he passed, and he noticed some new faces in the crowd.

“How’s Ebony?” Nick asked as soon as he saw Hancock. “Fahrenheit told me that she fell and hit her head.”

“She’ll be fine, thankfully. We might want to get Amari to take another blood sample.”

“So, you were able to get her outside? Did she seem more normal?” Nick’s face was etched with worry.

He smiled. “Yeah, she’s a lot better. Not as sluggish. But I still want to get back to her soon. Do you know where Fahr is?” Nick seemed to sigh with relief, and he jerked his head to the left. Looking over, Hancock saw his bodyguard lounging on a sofa, Dogmeat lying beside her.

He told her to tell everyone that it would be safe to go out soon. Once she said she would, he was out the door, anxious to get back to Ebony.

As he walked back into his office, he saw that she was still in the same place he’d left her. She smiled up at him.

“I told you I wouldn’t move.”

He chuckled. She had the Pip-Boy lying on the night stand and playing classical music. Crossing to his desk, he picked up the small, gray book. He held it up for her to see and raised an eyebrow in a silent question.

Her smile grew, but then dimmed a bit. “Are you sure you have time?” She fidgeted with the frayed sleeve of his coat. He could see her legs underneath the baggy article. They were still bruised and a few of the gashes still had stitches, but Dr. Amari had removed her bandages the day before. He was glad to see that she was healing, even though the bruises still looked pretty painful.

“I’m sure, Sunshine.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “Fahr’s got everything covered for me.” She nodded and he moved the pull his chair beside the bed.

“You can sit on the bed,” she said quietly. When he gave her an odd look she continued. “You look exhausted. I don’t mind you laying with me. In fact, it would be nice to have you close just in case I fall asleep and have a nightmare…” It was her turn to be concerned about him. He really did look exhausted, almost like he hadn’t slept in months. _He probably hasn’t, actually. He did mention something about not needing as much sleep as humans._

After a moment of silence and conflicted looks, he finally spoke. “Are you sure?” His words came out slowly.

“I’m sure.”

Another look of conflict. “Absolutely positive?”

She smiled at him. “Absolutely positive.”

He looked at her for a moment longer. He was exhausted. And he definitely wanted to be close in case something happened. But he also didn’t want to overstep any boundaries. _But she did say that she didn’t mind._ “Alright.” After helping her out of the coat and tossing it onto the couch, they both settled onto the bed.

He tensed when she laid her head on his chest. She was so different; not many wanted to touch a ghoul, much less be in the same bed as them. Trying to relax and calm his erratic heartbeat, he opened the book and began reading Act 4. He was halfway through the second scene when he noticed that she had dozed off.

He had begun to nod off himself, so he laid the book down on the nightstand and turned the classical music down a bit, making sure that he didn’t wake her. He sat back, listening to the orchestra and her soft breathing, and he was out almost as soon as he closed his eyes.


	8. Midnight Visitors

_**Wednesday, August 3rd, 2287 (Just after midnight)** _

 

“What the fuck is she doing here?” John’s rough, aggravated voice filled her sleep muddled brain. _Who’s here?_ She slowly opened her eyes, seeing that the office was dark except for some light filtering in from the hall. John was standing just outside of the half-opened door, talking to someone and looking pissed. _I’d hate to be on the receiving end of that glare…_

“I thought everyone was welcome in Goodneighbour, Hancock,” said a snarky female voice. She saw his gaze shift momentarily and then refocus on his original target.

“I sent you to Diamond City to tell Ellie that Nick wasn’t dead.” His voice was low and dangerous. “Not to pick up the most infuriating reporter in the entire Commonwealth and bring her straight to my doorstep, Mac.” She sat up quietly while he talked, still feeling groggy. _What time is it?_ She looked around trying to find her Pip-Boy, hearing a calming orchestra emanating from it. It was on the nightstand, but she didn’t want to risk making any noise and interrupting the conversation.

“Jeez, Hancock! I’m standing right here!”

“I know, Piper! You won’t shut up long enough to let anyone forget it!” His voice was just barely above a whisper, like a rough hiss.

“Why are you so touchy tonight, Mr. Mayor? Been off the chems for a bit?” The woman, Piper, retorted almost instantly.

“In fact, I have been-”

A mock gasp cut him off. “Oh, my God! I think I just found my biggest story yet! I can already see the headlines! ‘Commonwealth’s Second Worst Mayor Might Actually Kick the Chems!’”

“Would you quieten the fuck down. It’s the middle of the fucking night, and Ebony’s asleep.” She could tell he hadn’t meant to mention her because of the look of regret that slid onto his face.

“So, that’s her name? She’s who all the rumors are about, right?”

Hancock shifted his glare back to who she guessed was Mac. She could’ve sworn John or Nick had mentioned him before. A defensive voice piped up. “What are looking at me for?! All I told her was that there were some rumors flying around the town. I didn’t mention anything about the girl. She heard that part from a couple of Watchmen gossiping outside. Now, Piper could you hurry up and tell him what you want. I’m exhausted and would like to go to bed.”

John interrupted the woman. “Why did you guys get here so late? It’s after midnight and you usually like to travel in daylight hours, Mac.”

“There was a huge pack of ferals, so we decided that it would be safer to wait until they moved along. They just stood there for hours twitching until some Super Mutants ended up getting their attention. Not to mention we ran into more Mutants just before we got here.”

John nodded. He still looked tired.

“Can I talk to her?” His head swiveled back to the woman.

“What?”

“The girl, Ebony. The guys outside said that she was from before the war. I wanted to interview her.” Piper’s voice had a matter-of-fact tone to it. _People are talking about me?_

“No fucking way!” He raised his voice, making her jump, the bed creaking loudly from the small movement. _Shit!_ Onyx eyes met hers, and his angry expression softened. He’d moved back slightly to look around the doorframe; Ebony could see a black-haired woman stretching her neck to see into the room. Hancock turned back to the pair, blocking the woman from her view. “Go away,” he deadpanned.

“Oh, come on! Can we at least talk about it?” Piper pleaded.

“There’s nothing to talk about, Piper. I don’t want people reading your paper and finding out she’s over 200 years old. She doesn’t need to be ogled at like some pre-war relic.” He looked to her and quickly whispered, “No offense.”

“None taken,” she replied at the same volume. She noticed his hat was lying in the floor beside the bed. _Did he fall asleep with it on?_ She leaned over, picking it up and placing it beside her Pip-Boy. The time was 12:41 A.M.

“Now, you two need to go away. I’ll even pay for both of your rooms at the Rexford if you leave right now.”

Piper sighed. “Ugh, fine. Come on, RJ.” One set of footsteps started down the staircase.

“I am so sorry, Hancock,” Mac said.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. It’s fine. Look, I’m tired, so I’m gonna go back to sleep. Goodnight, MacCready.” John backed into the room and started to close the door.

“Goodnight, Mayor.”

Darkness consumed the room, but she noticed moonlight streaming through the windows. “Sorry for waking you up, Sunshine.” She jumped at the closeness of his voice, not having heard him lie down.

“It’s fine.” She decided to ask about the pair at the door in the morning. She laid her head on his chest, the steady beating of his heart soothing her. She noticed that it quickened after a second. He wrapped an arm around her after he moved the thin blanket over them, twirling her long hair with his fingers. She was enveloped in his heat and felt like she was going to fall back to sleep until he spoke.

“Hey, Ebony?”

“Mhm?”

She felt him shift a bit. “I’m guessing you didn’t have a nightmare.” His voice had a slight tinge of worry, and she looked up to see his black eyes staring down at her, illuminated by the moonlight. She was surprised she was still so tired after they had slept the day away.

“What clued you in? The lack of screaming and tears?” He smiled at her sarcastic reply. “I guess my brain was too exhausted to torture me tonight. I don’t think I had one last night either.”

He then furrowed his brow. “What are your nightmares about?” He felt her tense beside him and immediately added, “You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to. I just thought that talking about them might help.”

“No, no. I want to tell you, but they’re kind of fuzzy.” They weren’t really. The dreams were actually crystal clear in her memory, but she couldn’t explain them. Sure, she could tell him in detail what happened, but what she couldn’t do was find a reason behind them. They felt important, yet terrifying.

“Well, tell me what you can then.”

It seemed as if his rough voice pulled it all out of her. She told him about the one she’d had three times now, with the shadowed man standing over her in the wrecked room. She told him about the one where she’d woken back up in the vault. Then, she told him about the new one she’d had three nights prior.

She was still in the wrecked room, but this time she was standing, facing the front door. Red and blue lights flashed wildly outside. Loud knocking was coming from the door, voices filtering through the barrier. _We just want to talk! If you don’t open the door now, we’ll have to break it down!_

She’d felt a presence behind her, a hand holding painfully tight to her left arm, and realized that there was a cold blade poised against the sensitive skin of her throat, just barely pushing down. Fear blossomed violently in her chest, and her breath came in such short sobs that she thought she would surely hyperventilate. The screaming of a baby came from somewhere on the other side of the house.

When the door busted open, the man jerked, the knife slicing into the left side of her neck, leaving a small gash. She yelped in pain and surprise, the man yelling at her to shut up. Two police officers were in the door way, both with their guns pointed at the man. She could see the uncertainty of whether to shoot on their faces since the man was using her as a shield.

“Sir, put the weapon down and step away from the woman with your hands on your head!” The officer on the left, a burly man with red hair and a scraggly beard of the same hue, took a step closer, gun still poised. She felt the knife press a bit harder, the cold steel stinging the first cut. She felt warm blood flowing down and seeping into her shirt, also feeling some drip from a corner of her mouth.

“Don’t come any closer! I’ll slice her neck open right now if you do!” The man’s words had a drunken slur to them. The officer didn’t make a move to get any closer. The baby still wailed.

“You know you don’t want to do that,” the second officer, a female with brunette hair, said. “You don’t want to make this worse. A charge of second degree murder would send you straight to the chair. Unless we shoot you first.”

She could tell the man was scared now, not knowing what to do. All she could do was wait for him to decide what fate he wanted to face and try to ignore the blood trickling down her throat. The man was breathing almost as hard as she was now, and although she couldn’t see him, she could feel his head move between the officers. Finally, he dropped the knife, and Ebony crumpled to her knees, scuttling away. She noticed an open Mister Handy box in front of the couch she was now pressing her body against, the robot still packed inside.

Once the male officer put cuffs on the man, whose figure was oddly still shadowed as if her brain wanted to keep him hidden, the female officer rushed to her side. Everything after that really was fuzzy, the only two things standing out to her were sirens and the baby’s constant screaming.

John listened patiently, not taking his eyes off her once. Her head was still laying on his chest, her eyes trained to the windows and the many stars beyond them. She absently rubbed her neck when she was telling him the last nightmare, and he suddenly remembered the scar he’d seen. He wondered if the nightmare had stemmed from him asking her about it that day, her brain wanting to create some story to relate it to.

Once she finished talking about her newest nightmare, her eyes met his and he was stunned by the way the moonlight made her blue eyes seem silver. “So, yeah. That’s what going on in my fucked up brain.” Her words had a light-hearted tone to them, but he could detect sadness underlying it.

“Hell, Ebs, I’m amazed you’ve manage to get any decent sleep.” He knew his worry showed.

“I wish I didn’t need to sleep much. Like you. That would be nice, not having to dread nightmares every night,” she said softly. He held her closer, making sure to be gentle with her left arm, although Amari had said that the cut was almost completely healed. He wished he could say something about what she’d told him, but he had no idea what.

“John?”

His heart still skipped a beat every time she used his first name. “Yes, Ebs?”

“Thank you for listening to me. You were right, I feel a lot better having told someone…” Her voice was thick with sleep, and he felt her breathing slow.

“I’ll always be here to listen, Sunshine,” his whispered, placing a kiss on the crown of her head. He heard a happy sigh as he drifted back to sleep, briefly thinking that he must have been more exhausted than he’d realized to have slept this long.


	9. Annoyance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *so much apologetic silence*

**_Wednesday, August 3rd, 2287 (Early morning)_ **

 

Ebony watched as particles of dust danced in the morning light streaming through the sitting room’s grimy windows. Yesterday’s storm had brought a chill to the air, and, unfortunately, the blanket that John had given her was doing little to warm her legs. The dream of the vault had made a reappearance, so she and John ended up waking at the crack of dawn.

“ _Wow!_ She’s so pretty!” Ebony jumped when she heard a female voice exclaim. Her head whipped around to see Piper walking through the door with John.

“Quieten down, Piper. You’ll wake up the entire Commonwealth,” John grumbled, glaring at the woman. When his black eyes met hers, he smiled.

“Oh, whatever. You shouldn’t have gotten me so early if you didn’t want me waking people. Now,” she said, crossing to Ebony, “I would like to properly introduce myself. Mister Hard-ass here didn’t exactly let me talk last night.”

Hancock scoffed. “Believe me, you talked more than enough last night.”

Piper rolled her eyes. “I meant talk to _her._ ” She extended her hand to Ebony. “I’m Piper Wright, possibly the last news reporter in the entire Commonwealth. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Hopefully the last,” John whispered as he walked over and sat beside her, pulling out a tin of Mentats. Ebony, suppressing a giggle, shook Piper’s hand. Hancock lazily draped an arm on the back of the couch.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, too, Piper. I’m-”

“Ebony Astor. Hancock told me. Beautiful name, by the way,” she said quickly. She sat down on the sofa across the way and pulled out a notepad and pencil. She got the feeling the Piper was always this full of energy.

“Ebony, just know that you can stop whenever you want,” John said, making her smile. He didn’t like the idea of Piper interviewing her, didn’t want people bothering her about the radiation and the fact that she was pre-war. He’d wanted to protect her, but let her decide whether she was going to do this interview.

“Yes, just let me know if you get too tired. I’ll be happy to stop.” Piper smiled when Ebony nodded. “Alright. Let’s begin. Tell me when, where, and how you woke up.”

Ebony told her the entire story of the events since she had woken, once again leaving out the fact that she’d had a husband and child in her past life. The thought of them brought a mysterious dread and sadness, but she didn’t know why. They were in the past, left behind, yet she was worried that her past would come back to haunt her if too much of it was known. She didn’t know who they were, and, in all honesty, she didn’t want to know.

Before she knew it, they were finished. Piper put up the pencil and notepad and smiled once again. “Good. That’s everything. I won’t include your name or the fact that you’re in Goodneighbour, so people won’t pester you.” She stood, stretching. “Thank you so much for letting me interview you, Ebony. I’ll be staying at the Rexford for another night. You wouldn’t happen to want to pay for it again, would you, Mr. Mayor?” Piper’s eyes were pleading.

“Don’t push it, Piper,” he grumbled.

“Fine. I’ll pay for it all by myself then,” she said as she walked out of the room. “Goodbye, Ebony. I’ll see you tomorrow. Or maybe even later today.”

“Goodbye, Piper.” When Ebony heard the State House’s door shut, she sighed, closing her eyes. She felt John shift beside her.

“Are you okay, doll?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m just tired. Even with that whole radioactive recharge thing yesterday, it still feels like every little thing is draining me, and, if I’m honest, it’s really pissing me off.” She opened her eyes when he chuckled. He was reaching for a red inhaler on the coffee table.

“It’ll get better with time, Sunshine.”

“What’s that?” she asked, gesturing to the inhaler. He glanced down at it as if he just realized he’d grabbed it.

“It’s Jet. One hell of a ride. Wanna try?” He held it out to her, but she wasn’t sure if she should take it.

“I don’t recommend it,” Nick said before she could decide. Ebony turned to see him standing in the doorway; she hadn’t even heard any footsteps. Dogmeat bounded in after him, jumping up on the couch and snuggling into her side. She smiled and began stroking his soft fur as the detective sat where Piper had moments earlier. “Drugs aren’t exactly the best thing to get involved with, Ebony.”

“Oh, quit being so moral, Nicky. It’s boring,” John said with a smirk. “If the girl wants to have a bit of fun, let her.”

Nick gave an exasperated sigh. “Fine, it’s your choice. Just don’t get hooked on anything. Plus, you probably shouldn’t start out with Jet.”

“Well, yeah. I guess you’re right about that,” she heard John murmur as he looked down at the inhaler.

“I don’t know,” she said slowly. “We have no idea what it could do with me still healing and the unpredictable radiation.” She bit her lip, nervously looking at the inhaler.

“She’s right,” Nick replied, nodding. “It may interfere with Amari’s tests, too. Speaking of which, she should be stopping by to draw some more blood.”

Ebony groaned internally. She hated the needles. “How long until she gets here?” Dogmeat set his head on her lap, licking her hands.

“Not long at all, Miss Ebony.” Amari’s voice came from behind her. The doctor smiled kindly as she walked over, setting a couple of vials on the coffee table. “How do you feel this morning?” she asked.

“Fine, I suppose. Still a little drained, but not nearly as badly as I was.” Ebony averted her eyes when the doctor was poised over her arm with the needle and a vial. John still had his arm on the back of the couch, so he gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze when she flinched as the needle went in.

Before she knew it, though, it was over and she released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding as Amari walked back down the stairs. “Anyone know why she always leaves so quickly.”

“Work to do, I guess. She’s always been a busy one,” Nick said, lighting a cigarette. “So, guys, I’m gonna have to head back to Diamond City today, seeing as Ebony’s out of the woods.”

John nodded, though she could see a bit of sadness flicker in his black eyes. “Do you want me to send MacCready with you? It’ll be better to have someone watching your back.”

“What about Piper? I know you want her outta your hair as soon as possible.”

John sighed, aggravated at the mention of her. “Apparently, she’s already decided that she’s staying for another night.”

“I’ll talk to MacCready then,” the detective said as he stood. “You already paid him to make a run for me. I’ll pay him this time. I’ll be leaving right after I talk to him, so he’ll have time to get back.” John nodded again and Nick started for the door.

“Wait!” Ebony shot up, surprising them and Dogmeat. She wobbled a bit and Nick hurried over to keep her from collapsing. Before he could scold her for standing so quickly, she wrapped her arms around his neck, having to stand on her tiptoes to reach him. She felt him freeze, not knowing how to respond.

“Thank you, Nick,” Ebony said quietly as she let him go after a moment. “You didn’t have to bring me here, and even though I still don’t understand why you did it, I appreciate it more than you can imagine.”

The detective just stared at her, and she could feel the smile slipping from her face when he finally spoke. “You’re welcome. I’d do it again in a heartbeat, Ebony.” She hugged him again, which he actually returned this time. They all said goodbyes, and Ebony sat back down, annoyingly exhausted from the small amount of exertion.

She sighed loudly, accidentally attracting John’s questioning gaze. “Sorry. It’s just getting annoying.”

He smiled sadly. “I know, Ebs. I know.”


	10. Danger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is a late New Year's present. I think I've got back into writing this story, so please enjoy and let me know what you think!!!

**_Thursday, August 25 th, 2287 (Around Noon)_ **

 

Weeks passed in a rapid blur. Hancock witnessed Ebony slowly but surely healing, becoming stronger. Her radiation levels had risen to the 1500s after the storm, only going down slightly over the few days following. Now, she was regaining her strength faster than anyone he’d ever seen. Dr. Amari had said that the radiation would make it easier for her to recover a healthy body weight and would make muscles develop faster, though she had neglected to provide an explanation for it. Ebony no longer looked as if she was starving, and she could walk on her own with ease.

Now, Ebony stood across from him in the basement of the State House, poised to attack. Her long black hair was pulled back into a messy bun, strands coming down to frame her beautiful face. Her ruby lips formed a mischievous smirk.

“Are you gonna come at me or not, Mr. Mayor?” she asked teasingly. The grip he had on his knife tightened.

“Are you sure you’re up for this, Sunshine? You’ve only _just_ started training with Fahr,” he said. She had been eager to get up and move as she healed; he could obviously tell that she was going stir crazy. Fahrenheit had luckily seen how desperate she was for something to do and volunteered to train her to fight.

 _“She’s gonna need it when she goes back out there,”_ she had said, reminding him that his Sunshine probably _was_ going to leave the little town. That thought made his heart ache agonizingly.

“ _Of course_ I’m ready, John. Now, are you going to attack?” She cocked an eyebrow at him expectantly.

After sighing exasperatedly, he rushed towards her, slashing at her. Hancock kept his attacks heavily restrained, refusing to risk hurting her. He didn’t know what he’d do with himself if that happened.

As if on instinct, Ebony dodged his attacks. She flowed easily, calculating when each of his strikes would occur and how fast they’d come. She soon realized that he was holding back, which aggravated her.

After another dodge, she came to a standstill. John had already swung again, not realizing that she had stopped so suddenly. She quickly grabbed his arm, and without thinking, twisted her body around and flipped him over her shoulder. He hit the ground with a hard thud, groaning.

“Damn, Ebs,” was all he could wheeze out, the wind having been forcefully knocked from his lungs. She took a step back and crossed her arms.

“I guess you won’t go full force with me yet,” she stated a little glumly. A dirty joke instantly shot to Hancock’s mind, but he bit it back. He heard the movement of her crouching, and her face appeared over his, just close enough to make him nervous and cause the breath he hardly had to quicken. “And I’m guessing there’s nothing I can say to make you, right?”

“Right,” he croaked, still recovering from the shock of her attack. She grimaced, but it melted a bit when his hand came up to gently touch her cheek. “Would it make you feel better if I promised to fight you, no holding back, after you’ve been training with Fahr for a bit longer?”

Ebony smiled at his offer and nodded. _I could totally kiss him right now…_ The thought invaded her mind, and she felt her eyes go wide. She quickly jumped up and took four whole strides back from him. She heard approaching footsteps as she watched him sit up and cast a curious glance at her.

“Well, now,” came Fahrenheit’s voice from the doorway behind them. Ebony could detect the hint of amusement and teasing in her tone. “What have we here?”

Hancock groaned, already knowing he was going to be sore for a bit. “Little Ebs here kicked my ass, that’s what we have.” He shot a playful glare at the raven-haired beauty, getting a smirk in return.

“Well, I wouldn’t have if you would’ve _actually_ fought me for real,” Ebony said simply, getting an eye roll and a grin from him.

He had started to say something before he heard Fahr whisper, “I don’t know about that.” He narrowed his eyes and huffed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Fahr shrugged and held up her hands defensively, a smirk on her lips. “I’m just saying that it seems like Ebony has had some more formal training before the war. She could probably kick both of our asses with muscle memory alone if she tried hard enough.” She paused. “And then there’s also the fact that you’ve gotten a bit rusty lately.”

Hancock glared daggers at his bodyguard. “Come over here, and I’ll show you just how “rusty” I am,” he muttered. Fahr ignored him, but Ebony chuckled at their exchange. Fahrenheit’s words had actually jogged her memory of something.

“You know, the file from the vault _had_ mentioned that I’d been taught a little about how to defend myself,” Ebony said, grinning as John stood and groaned again.

“Judging from the moves you’ve used on me, I’d say it was more than just a little training.” Fahr lit a cigarette as she talked, leaning casually against the doorframe. She took a drag before speaking again. “Enough about that though. I came down here to let the mayor know that he’s needed in the Third Rail.”

“For what?” he asked.

“No clue. Piper just said she needed to talk to you about something really important,” she said with nonchalance.

“Wait, Piper’s still in town?! I thought she had left!” Hancock complained, hoping that he had escaped the annoying reporter’s clutches when she had left a week prior.

“Well, apparently she’s back.”

Out of his peripheral vision, he could see Ebony beaming, seeming to be silently celebrating. He knew she and Piper had developed quite the friendship when she was last in town; Piper had even started telling her about things going on outside of Goodneighbour’s walls. He’d always loved to sit and watch Ebony’s reactions as she listened. Her face would screw up in anger and disgust when Piper would talk about the raiders and the slavers. However, when the reporter began talking of the settlements that had started rebuilding, a beautiful expression of happiness or hope would cross her face. Then, she started talking about Diamond City.

Hancock had managed to avoid most of that conversation, too infuriated when he thought of what happened in that city, the atrocity his brother committed. Still, he had caught the tail end of their talk.

_“Do you think I could go to Diamond City?” Ebony asked, sitting cross-legged on the red sofa next to Piper._

_“Well, of course. You’ll obviously need to heal some more before you can do any travelling, but I’d be happy to take you to the city once you have,” Piper answered. “I’ll even show you around the marketplace. We can stop by ole Nicky’s place, too, if he’s in town.” Hancock, who had just entered the room to grab a jet inhaler, felt his heart stutter when he saw the way Ebony smiled. It was contagious and made him smile as well._

_“You should come with us, John,” she said cheerfully, turning her bright blue eyes on him. He froze, having just picked up the inhaler of Jet. He felt the smile slip as he simply shook his head, feeling terrible once he saw the look of sadness on her face. He didn’t want to explain why, so he just muttered an apology, not meeting her eyes, and walked from the room. “Why wouldn’t he want to come?” He stopped and stayed by the door, hidden from view, as he listened for Piper’s response._

_“Ebony, it’s not exactly that he doesn’t_ want _to, it’s that he_ can’t _. Ghouls aren’t allowed in Diamond City,” she said, Hancock being able to detect some sadness in her tone._

_“What?” Ebony’s voice was just above an unbelieving whisper. “Why not?”_

_He heard Piper sigh. “Mayor McDonough. When he ran for mayor, it was part of his campaign, “Mankind for McDonough.” He had all the ghouls in Diamond City dragged from the city and left them for dead. I didn’t live there at the time, but I’ve heard that everyone just turned on each other. Just hearing about it was sickening.”_

_“That’s horrible!” Ebony said, her voice raising. “That’s just…completely fucked up! Why would they do that?”_

_“A lot of people are very closed-minded; they look down on both ghouls and synths. McDonough used that closed-mindedness for his own benefit.”_

_“McDonough sounds like a real tool,” Ebony said, a steely anger in her voice. He let out a small chuckle, knowing they couldn’t hear him._ She’s not wrong about that at all…

_“Oh, yeah. Definitely,” Piper agreed._

_He heard an audible sigh from Ebony. “Did no one even try to help the ghouls?”_

_“Most didn’t. But, although it’s kind of hard for me to believe, I’ve heard rumours that Hancock helped some of the families, back before he was even a ghoul.”_ Who the hell has been telling people about that?

_“Before he was a ghoul?” Ebony’s question came as a whisper._

_“Oh, yeah. He’s not from before the war. Supposedly, he only became a ghoul a little less than ten years ago.” He was left wondering how Piper could know about that. It wasn’t exactly a secret, but still, not many people knew about it._

_There was a pause before, “How did he become a ghoul?”_

_“Now, that I don’t know. You’d have to ask him yourself.”_

_Later that night, as he laid in bed next to her, reading_ The Secret Garden _for her, he caught her looking at him curiously. He chuckled as he closed the book. “Am I that nice to look at, Doll?” he joked, their eyes meeting._

_“Yeah,” she said nonchalantly, causing him to smirk and raise what used to be an eyebrow. He’d noticed how she had gotten more brazen as she healed, not being as shy as she had once been. “But that’s not why I was staring, at least not totally. I was just thinking about something Piper told me about you.”_

_“Oh, yeah?” Hancock had expected her to ask him about it sooner or later. “What did my least favourite reporter tell you?”_

_She gave him a scolding look, but the shadow of a smile played on her lips. “She said that you aren’t a prewar ghoul like Daisy, that you’d only changed in the last ten years. So, I wanted to know how you became a ghoul. If that’s okay.” Her voice was soft, and he recognized a hesitance in her tone that he hadn’t heard once in the past few days._

_“Well, I didn’t change in the normal way, through extreme exposure to rads, I mean. When I was young, I used to go on these…wild tears. I used any chems I could find; the more exotic, the better. I finally found this experimental radiation drug. Only one of its kind left, and only one hit.” His grin grew as he remembered the day. “The high was so fuckin’ worth it, though. Yeah, I’m livin’ with the side effects, but, hell, what’s not to love about immortality?”_

_She raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Immortality? You’re immortal?”_

_“Well, not exactly. Ghouls just age really, really slowly. Don’t know why, but I do know that it’s got something to with the rads…”_

_He watched her become lost in thought. A few moments of silence passed before she spoke again. “Do you think that I age at the same pace? I’ve been exposed to a lot of rads, too. Do you think it has the same effect?” Ebony laid her head on his shoulder._

_He thought about her question for a moment. “I don’t really know, Ebs,” he whispered before opening the book again. “If you want, we could go ask Amari about it tomorrow.”_

_Once again, she was silent for a while. He had begun reading, getting through a few more pages, before he heard her whisper, “I don't know how I'd feel about immortality…”_

_“What do you mean?” he asked._

_“Sounds like it would be lonely after a while. People around you would age while you're just stuck, at a standstill. You'd be alone,” she said, her voice just barely above a whisper. Her gaze was still focused on the windows across the room. Her words struck a chord with him; she was right. He hadn't ever really thought about it much, didn't want to face that reality just yet._

_“You wouldn't be completely alone,” he said abruptly. She finally looked back up at him, confusion gracing her features. “I’d still be here.”_

_Ebony gave a small smile before she laid her head back onto his shoulder. He could tell that she was getting tired. “You're right, John. I'd be happy if I had you here with me.”_

_He watched her intently as she let her eyes slide closed, unsure if he'd heard her correctly. He softly shut the book and set it on the nightstand once he heard her breathing even out. He laid there in silence, considering their conversation until rays of grey light began to stream through the windows._

_Ebony had had a nightmare that morning, not telling him if it was one of the recurring ones or if it was a new one. She had seemed pretty distant while she slowly ate her breakfast before she turned to him, the ghost of a smile on her face._

_“John, I don't think I want to go to Diamond City anymore,” she had said. “Not if you can't go there with me.”_

_He’d cracked a grin at her. “Just can't live without me, huh, Sunshine?” She gave him a look, and he understood that she was actually serious. “Hey now, don't let_ _me hold you back from things you want to do.”_

_She shook her head. “I don't want to be somewhere that sounds so poisonous, anyway.”_

“John? Did you hear me?” Ebony’s voice snapped him from the memories, drawing his gaze to her azure eyes.

“‘Course he didn't. He was off daydreaming,” Fahr muttered, Hancock shooting her another glare.

“Sorry, Ebs. What’d you say?” he asked, the look of excitement still on her face.

“Can I come with you to see Piper?” Her eyes looked hopeful, and they made him melt. He was about to tell her that it was her choice before Fahrenheit piped up.

“I don't think you should, Ebony. Piper was pretty serious about talking to him in private; got something to do with the politics of the Commonwealth.”

Hancock groaned internally. “You really wouldn't even want to come, Sunshine. I can already tell that this is gonna be really annoying.” He saw a twinge of disappointment in her eyes, but she nodded.

“I'll go talk to Daisy, then,” she said.

“Alright. Once we're done talking, Piper and I will come find you, okay?” He smiled when she nodded, already starting for the stairs. He heard her ascend the second flight, and absently wondered what she was doing as he left through the front door of the State House.

Trash and stray papers blew around in the breeze. He and his bodyguard walked down the abnormally silent alleyway, finally hearing voices and laughter when they got to closer to the Third Rail, the entrance beneath the State House balcony. A few guards and drifters were in the courtyard, seemingly in the middle of a conversation.

Once they saw the mayor, the guards nodded in greeting and the two drifters with them quieted, giving short but friendly waves.

Hancock gave a silent greeting to Ham, the Rail’s bouncer, before descending the several flights of stairs leading to the subway station turned bar. Fahr led him into the back room to find Piper and MacCready talking seriously.

“So, Piper, what do you need to tell your second least favourite mayor?”

***

Ebony strolled into John's office, looking for her PipBoy. She retrieved it from the bedside table, turning it on and snapping it around her wrist. She hardly ever wore it, but there was a new feature she’d discovered that she was hoping Daisy could tell her about. She also grabbed the 10mm pistol John had given her. She smirked as she remembered what he had said.

_“Now, I know it’s a really simple gun, but it’d do you good to start learning with it. And then we can start moving up to guns that can light someone on fire.”_

When she thought about it, she realized that she honestly couldn’t tell if he’d been serious or not.

Shaking her head with a small laugh, she began heading back downstairs, out into Goodneighbour. She was a bit unnerved by the overwhelming silence, but started towards Daisy’s shop nevertheless.

She was stopped by Goodneighbour’s door loudly clanging open, a small figure rushing through. Ebony instinctively reached towards the gun she had put in the waistband of her jeans; John had gone over the basics of using it with her, even taking her just beyond the walls for target practice on wild mongrels.

The figure was scrawny and reminded her of the feral ghoul that attacked her the day she woke up, just half its size. Her grip on the gun tightened, but she didn’t draw just yet. The thing scrambled away from the door, and she could tell it was breathing heavily even from over ten feet away. And then it turned to her.

A shaggy mop of brown hair came down over its eyes, partially obstructing them. Its skin was red from sunburn, looking excruciatingly painful on its lanky limbs. They stared at each other for several long seconds.

“Miss, will you help me?” She was surprised when it spoke, the hold on her gun loosening. It sounded like a young boy with a heavy accent, and he seemed winded, as if he’d been running for a very long time. “Please, Miss. I need help. My parents are in trouble.”

He approached her, and she found her self crouching down to his level, though she had a gut feeling that she shouldn’t let her guard down, even if he was only a child. As he got closer, she saw that all he was wearing was overalls, which were far too big and ragged for him. She felt a twang of pity for the small child.

“Just slow down and tell me what happened,” she said kindly, offering a smile.

“My Ma and Pa were attacked by Mirelurks. They managed to scare them off, but they’re hurt really badly. Please, Miss, you have to come help them. You have to come right now.” His brown eyes were large and pleading, and she could feel herself crumbling under their stare. She looked around the empty courtyard, seeing that both shops had also been vacated; again, she felt unsettled by it but shook off her uneasiness.

“Listen, maybe we can get some help-”

“No! There isn’t time to go get others,” the boy shouted as he began pulling at her arm, nearly making her fall over. “Please, they could die!”

“Hey, hey! Okay! Just calm down. I’ll help you,” she said as she righted herself. She cast another nervous glance around. _What if John gets mad at me for leaving?_ She sighed, looking back to the child and shaking the thought away. “Lead the way, kid. But I don’t know how much help I’ll be.”

“Thank you so much, Miss! Come on, I’ll show you the way!”

Ebony ran after him, out of the safety of Goodneighbour’s walls. She followed him for several blocks, jumping at every sound. She had her pistol in her hand, ready to fire at a moments notice. _But what if I miss?_

“It’s just a little further!” The boys voice echoed of the surrounding buildings, and she realized that he was some ways ahead of her, already turning another corner; she rushed to catch up with him, quickly rounding the corner.

A dark shadow flashed into view, and before she could even raise her gun, she was ruthlessly struck in the head, bringing her to the ground. Her vision began to rapidly blur, and she distantly heard boots crunching on the debris strewn across the streets.

“Huh, the boss was right. She is quite the beauty,” a gruff voice spoke, sending unpleasant chills down her spine. _What is that accent?_ She couldn’t figure out how she knew, but she had a strong feeling that he was Russian, and, judging from his shadow, he was a very large, intimidating man.

She tried to pick herself up, but quickly had a boot planted into her back, roughly pushing her back into the crumbling asphalt. She cried out as pain bloomed in her back and chest, joining her throbbing head.

“Just where do you think you’re going, bitch?” he spat. She couldn’t clearly see him, her vision was too far gone, but she could make out a small form beside him. The large man turned to the child, grinding the heel of his boot into her back and earning another pained cry. “Isn’t her voice just beautiful, brat? Here’s your caps. Now get out of here.”

“Thank you so much, sir,” chirped the boy. She wondered how he could sound so unbothered by what was happening. Small, quick footsteps receded, leaving her alone with the brutal man.

“So, what shall I do with you first?” he asked as he began binding her wrists and ankles.

“F-first?” was all she could muster, her world swimming as he pulled her up. Everything began going dark, but she heard his bone chilling words.

“Well I’m not going to just hand a beauty like you over before I’ve had my fun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, bad stuff is to come in later chapters. I'll include a warning on the particular chapter if you would prefer to skip it.


	11. Warning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a short one, sorry. But I do feel like I'm on a bit of a roll here, so be prepared for another chapter soon.
> 
> Also, bad stuff next chapter. Just a warning.

**_Thursday, August 25 th, 2287 (Around Noon)_ **

 

“So, what you’re telling me is that there’s basically gonna be a war for territory soon? And this war is gonna be over Goodneighbour and the surrounding area? That about right, Piper?” Hancock sat on the couch perpendicular to the one Piper and MacCready were seated on. He found himself rubbing his temples, already feeling the massive headache this new problem would cause.

The reporter nodded. “Yeah, sorry to say. From what my sources have said, there’ll be four factions fighting over it, if you include yourself.”

“Who else will be involved?” He heard Fahr sigh and looked over to where she was leaned against the wall. He could tell she was already feeling the pressure from this news.

“Well, I know Diamond City will be one. McDonough is starting some new kind of campaign; I think he believes he’s losing ground with the people after my last publication. He sees Goodneighbour, mainly you, as a threat to the peace, so he’s wanting to basically lead a purge in this area,” Piper explained.

“Why the hell does he see this town as a threat? He should know we don’t want _anything_ to do with the pricks in Diamond City,” he said, shaking his head.

“Hey!”

“I didn’t mean you! Or Nick, at that. Then again, you are very annoying.”

She shot him a look. “You know, you should be thankful I’ve told you about this before it happened. You would’ve been completely blindsided and most likely defeated.”

“Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the info, Piper. Just answer the question.” Hancock leaned back into the sofa, crossing his arms over his chest.

“He doesn’t really see Goodneighbour as a threat; he sees it more as an opportunity to regain the peoples’ trust. Along with Diamond City, there’s Skinny Malone’s gang. But you’ve known about them wanting to branch out for years, so that’s surely no surprise to you. Lastly, there’s Pickman.”

“ _Pickman?_ Seriously? How can he even compete with everyone else?”

“He’s building up quite the force, Hancock. Lots of guns for hire have been lurking around his place, guarding it. There’s reason to believe that he could be a serious threat to you,” Piper’s voice became unusually serious, and when the mayor looked to her, the expression she wore was grave. “You’re really gonna have to prepare for this, Hancock. Or else, they may rip everything from you.”

Hancock quickly decided that he did _not_ like Serious Piper. She was very unnerving. “What would Pickman even want with this place?” he asked himself. “I thought he was happy mutilating raiders where he was. And, Fahr, weren’t we keeping an eye out there? How did the surge in activity go unnoticed by us?”

“I’m not sure, but I will look into it immediately,” she said, already heading for the door, letting it shut heavily behind her.

“What are we gonna do, Hancock?” MacCready asked, looking just as concerned as the mayor felt. “How can we withstand an attack from three different sides?”

“I don’t know, Mac,” he said, shaking his head with a sigh. “Hopefully, they won’t attack us all at once; that’d really fuck us over. One thing I do know for sure, though, is that we aren’t gonna let any of them get their grubby hands on this town easily. Especially not without a fight.”

***

“So, are you going to tell her?” Piper asked as they walked down the alleyway to the shops. Hancock noticed that there was a considerable amount of chatter from up ahead than earlier.

“Yeah. I hate to worry her, though. But I can’t hide important stuff from Ebs; that didn’t end too well last time. Besides, you’d probably just tell her if I didn’t.”

“True, true. So, you said she was waiting at Daisy’s?” she asked as they neared the general store.

“Yeah. Ebony’s become pretty close with her, too. Over the last week you’ve been gone, she’s spent hours listening to stories about what it was like before the war.” Hancock had noticed that most of the people in Goodneighbour had taken a liking to her, so Ebony had made several fast friends.

“Really? Has she remembered anything from back then?”

Hancock shook his head. “Not that she’s told me. Ah, Daisy, how’ve you been?” he greeted the ghoul woman warmly, looking around for Ebony. “You haven’t happened to see Ebs around, have you? She said she was coming to see you just a bit ago.”

“No, Mayor. Ebony hasn’t been around at all today, sorry,” Daisy answered, shaking her head slightly.

Hancock felt an ominous feeling curl at the bottom of his stomach. “Piper, you stay here. I’m gonna go check the State House for her,” he said as he briskly started to walk away.

He hurried up the spiral staircase, glancing into both side rooms before doing so. He looked in his office, his bedroom, and the sitting area, but there was no sign of the raven-haired woman. He searched the top floor as well, but found no trace of her.

He rushed out the back door of the State House, making a bee line for the Memory Den.

“Doc, have you seen Ebony?” he asked as he crossed the threshold into her lab area. She had been tinkering with one of the memory loungers there, but quickly looked up when she heard him.

“No, I have not. Have you checked the State House?”

“Of course I’ve checked the State House. She had said she’d be at Daisy’s, but Daisy said she hadn’t seen her. And she isn’t at the Rail; I would’ve seen her on the way out.” That feeling was growing, making him anxious.

“Try the Rexford, Hancock. Surely she’s there.”

_But why would she want to go there?_

They’d had an incident at the hotel just a few of days prior; a prewar ghoul that had stayed there constantly had shot himself in his room, leaving only a note that said, _How is she still perfect?!_ After that happened, Ebony didn’t want to be anywhere near the place. She had told him that she’d spoken with the man, and that he’d freaked out on her.

_“I swear, John, it was so odd. He swore up and down that he’d known me before the war, but that’s just not possible, right? I mean, I looked different back then; the file said so. But then he kept asking me why I still looked human. I had no idea what I was supposed to do.”_

Hancock had decided that he’d wanted to go speak to the man to try to get a clue into her past, but by the next morning, he was already dead. He hadn’t told Ebony about the note because he believed it was linked to what the man had said to her; she had already been worried that her presence had caused it because of the earlier outburst.

Nevertheless, he trudged over to the hotel and searched every single floor, but there was no sign of her.

He was getting desperate now, could feel himself begin to panic.

_No._

_You are the mayor of Goodneighbour, John Hancock._

_You. Will._ Not. _Panic._

_Ebony is fine. She has to be._

***

Ebony woke with a gasp, frantically looking around.

“So, you are finally awake…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me what you think!


	12. Why Are You Doing This?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lovelies, I was so hyped to really start working on this story again and I was hoping that I could really start putting out chapters more often. And then my health was like, "BITCH, YOU THOUGHT!" So, long story short, a chapter that should've taken maybe a few days to get done, took almost 2 months. I'm so sorry.
> 
> Warning: Some pretty bad stuff happens to Ebony in this chapter. In no way do I condone any of it. If it makes you uncomfortable, please just wait for the next chapter. I'm hoping to get it out relatively soon, but I can't make any promises.

 

    **_Thursday, August 25th, 2287 (Late Afternoon)_ **

 

    “So, you're finally awake,” an accented voice spoke from Ebony’s left.

    She quickly scanned her surroundings before looking to her captor.

    They were on the roof of a riverside building, fading afternoon light bathing the rusting boats and murky waters. Across the river was a barrier of red brick buildings, many of which were dilapidated beyond recognition. On the other three sides of the building were brownstone apartments; on the horizon, skyscrapers seemed to disappear into the clouds. Advertisements were slowly peeling off of billboards in the distance.

    Ebony tried to look at everything but her kidnapper. A cooking station, a sleeping bag, a lawn chair on a raised section of the roof, overlooking the river.

    “You should be thankful you woke on your own. I was impatient, and you really wouldn't have enjoyed me waking you.” She finally looked over at him. He was seated in a plastic chair near the cooking station, feet resting upon the surrounding cinder blocks.

    She tried to speak, but all that left her mouth was muffled noise. She realised that he had gagged her, wondering how she hadn't noticed the foul tasting cloth earlier.

    Ebony's hands and feet were tightly bound with thick ropes. No amount of wriggling would release her from the bonds cutting into her skin.

    She pressed herself against the brick wall of the raised platform when he stood, wanting to get as far away from him as possible but not having the power to.

    “Oh, does the little girl want to talk?” he asked, laughing cruelly as he crouched in front of her. “I'll remove the gag, but you have to promise not to scream. The only ones around to hear you are creatures that would put us both in a bind. Promise you'll be quiet?”

    She hesitated before nodding, staying still as he slowly pulled the gag down and let it rest on her neck. She kept her promise to keep quiet; however, he hadn't told her to behave.

    Ebony snapped at his fingers, failing to bite him before he quickly drew back. He chuckled at her, a deep, teasing sound that made her want to rip his head off.

    “Well, aren't you quite the feisty one. I hadn't pegged you for a fighter,” he sneered. “But it's useless. I am _much_ stronger and faster than you'll ever be, little bitch.”

    “Let me go,” she growled, glaring daggers at the man.

    “I don't think I will,” he whispered, getting right in her face. His breath stunk of alcohol and rotting meat, and she could see thin scars running across his face.

    “What do you even want with me?”

    “What do I want? Well, at first, I was only going to snatch you up and turn you in to my boss. But then I saw you and decided that we’d have a little fun instead. I'm still turning you in, just not until I'm finished with you,” he explained, running a hand down her chest with a predatory glint in his eyes. She tried to squirm away, but she could only move so much. And she couldn't swat his hand away with hers tied behind her back.

    “Don't fucking touch me,” was all she could say, causing him to laugh at her again.

    “Do you really think I'm going to listen to you?”

    The sound of ripping cloth met her ears as he tore open her shirt, making her jerk and exposing her pale breasts to the cool breeze. Gooseflesh spread over her body, making her shiver. But she wasn't just shivering from the cold; she was shivering with fear. She couldn't even imagine what he was going to do to her. All that was going through her head was what Piper had told her about slavers.

     _“Unfortunately, there are monsters in the Commonwealth that enjoy kidnapping people to enslave them for sex, work, all kinds of things. I haven't ever seen it first hand, thankfully, but they blow off the heads of the ones who misbehave or fight back. Like, literally blow it off. With a bomb.”_

    A dark chill went up her spine as she thought of being a sex slave to her captor and his “boss.” The idea made her want to vomit.

    “Look at you,” he growled. “All perfect-skinned and beautiful. I've never seen another woman look _anything_ like you.” He began roughly groping her, seeming to enjoy it when she tried to get away.

     _Sick bastard!_

    “Damn! I've never met a woman just a soft as you either. I wonder if your mouth is better, too,” he said, smiling cruelly and standing. He began unzipping his pants, and Ebony looked away, humiliation flooding her body at the mere thought of what he wanted.

       He roughly grabbed a fist full of her dark hair, forcing his hard member in her face. He was rather large and thick, the size intimidating.

    “You better not try anything, or I'll blow your fucking brains out. If you behave, you just might survive long enough to get back to your precious mayor. Got it, little bitch?”

    Ebony quickly nodded, terrified to even think of what might happen if she tried to refuse. At the mention of John, she felt the need to cry, for she knew that she'd probably never get to see him again.  She tried to push John completely from her thoughts as her captor forced his way into her mouth, almost to the hilt.

    Ebony instantly gagged, but he didn't seem to care. He just began rocking into her mouth, his grip growing tighter in her hair.

    “Holy fucking shit,” he groaned, pushing even farther into her mouth. Her throat constricted and tears began rolling down her cheeks. She was helpless to do anything as he used her mouth. The lewd noises it made were damn near sinful.

    After a couple of minutes, though, he got bored of simply enjoying her. The hand fisted in her hair roughly bobbed her head on his cock, causing her to gag over and over. She scrunched her eyes shut, tears stinging them.

    “God, you're so fucking amazing. I'm not gonna last long with you…”

    After a few more thrusts, he came in her mouth, the disgustingly salty taste making her want to vomit. He quickly pulled out and forced her mouth shut, getting right in her face.

    “I want you to swallow.” She shook her head roughly. “ _Swallow,_ ” he commanded, his grip on her mouth getting even tighter. Though every muscle in her body refused, Ebony forced herself to swallow the vile stuff.

    Once he was sure she had swallowed everything, he grinned evilly, finally letting her go. He stood and walked back to the chair by the cooking station. “Give me a few minutes and we'll go for round two.”

    Ebony slid down the wall onto her side, sobbing quietly. She had been violently violated, and she knew that it wasn't over yet. All the things he could do to her ran through her mind as she waited, unable to do little else. She tried focusing on something to calm herself. She began counting the number of bricks in a nearby chimney, only getting to fifteen before she was yanked up by her hair.

    She cried out when he pressed himself against her, her bound hands scratched on the rough brick behind her. He was in her face again, a cruel smile revealing sharp, canine-like teeth.

    “Well, you look even more beautiful crying,” he said, hunger in his eyes.

    Ebony shook her head, willing the tears to stop. “Why are you doing this?” she asked weakly, her voice cracking.

    “Because this is the Commonwealth, darling, and I can do whatever the hell I want.”

    Ebony inhaled sharply as his words jarred her memory.

_A tall figure walked towards her, shadowed by the lights behind him. She was in the floor, curled against the wall. She could feel the weight of a child inside her, her arms wrapped protectively around her swollen stomach._

_“Why are you doing this to us?!” she heard herself frantically ask._

_In a voice she felt the faintest recognition of, he darkly said, “Because I own you, bitch, and I can do whatever the fuck I want with you.”_

    Ebony snapped back to reality, realising her kidnapper had her bent onto the raised area of the roof, the concrete painfully cutting into her exposed chest. She could feel him lining himself up.

    “The name’s Dmitri, by the way," he whispered in her ear, his weight pressing on her suffocatingly. “I want to hear you screaming it.”

    He violently thrusted into her, searing pain causing her to see stars and scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MR. MAYOR'S GONNA BE PISSED WHEN HE FINDS OUT! HEADS WILL ROLL!!


	13. In The Dark

**_Sunday, August 28th, 2287 (Early Morning)_ **

     Nick silently walked through the Fens, often glancing over his shoulder and scanning his surroundings. Even with all the Diamond City patrols around, one could never be too careful. He acknowledged one of said patrols as he made his way to the nearby police precinct, scolding himself for overlooking the small station in his search for Eddie Winter. He’d completely forgotten it had even existed.

     Once he entered the station, he did a quick canvas of it, quite easily finding a holotape stashed in the corner of a holding cell. Quietly celebrating the important find, he went into the office and sat in front of the only working terminal. He had gone to put the tape in when an evidence log caught his eye.

 

**CASE 225-DV: Astor Domestic Violence**

**EVIDENCE LOG ENTRY: NaAs-01**

**OBJECT: 1x kitchen knife, covered in victim’s blood**

**STATUS: In Precinct 8 evidence cabinet**

 

**EVIDENCE LOG ENTRY: NaAs-02**

**OBJECT: Bloody blouse, belonging to the victim**

**STATUS: In Precinct 8 evidence cabinet**

 

**EVIDENCE LOG ENTRY: NaAs-03**

**OBJECT: 8x photos, depicting bruising on victim’s face and body**

**STATUS: In Precinct 8 evidence cabinet**

 

**EVIDENCE LOG ENTRY: NaAs-04**

**OBJECT: Victim’s statement, along with photos of the crime scene, photos of the weapon, and photos of the abuse**

**STATUS: In Precinct 8 evidence cabinet**

 

     Nick read the report, then read it again, then read it once more before he dared to believe his eyes. _The reports couldn’t really be talking about Ebony, right? The surname’s the same, though…_

     Completely forgetting about listening to the holotape, the detective began rifling through the adjacent filing cabinets, deciding anything remotely related to her could be important to figuring out her past. It didn’t take long to find the files labelled “Astor.” There were several, not just one related to domestic violence. Blackmail, fraud, forgery… Each file had a large, red “Dismissed” stamped onto it.

     Nick furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what on earth Ebony was involved in before the war. To get charges like that dismissed, one had to have some pretty serious connections.

     He flipped through the file mentioned on the terminal, eyes going wide when he came across the first photo.

     A pretty blonde in her late 20s stared up at him, bright blue eyes red and puffy. She had a dark bruise on her cheek, a deep gash on her forehead, and a bleeding cut on her lip. The next few photos showed profiles of her face and bruises on her torso, back, and legs; it looked like she had had the living shit beaten out of her.

     He flipped through the photos of her several times, but was always drawn back to the first photo. She was bloodied, bruised, and looked utterly defeated. Pained. Scared. Exhausted.

     She looked exactly how Ebony had when he’d found her, broken and close to death. The hair colour was different, but there was no doubting it. It was a picture of Ebony, before the hell of war, when she was in a different hell of her own.

     Nick leaned back in the chair, releasing a drawn out sigh. _This explains so much… I have to get this to them. Now._

 

***

 

**_Thursday, August 25th, 2287 (Late Evening)_ **

 

     “What the fuck were you thinking, Dmitri?!”

     Ebony jolted awake at the shouting voices, looking around in alarm. Her head pounded agonisingly. The room she was in was dark and small, mostly barren. There were several large holes in the walls, exposing metal piping. She quickly realised that she was cuffed to one of the old, rusting pipes.

     “I wanted her brought to me completely unharmed!” the same voice from before yelled again.

     “Then you should have said so! I didn’t even do that much damage; I just had my fun and fucked her a few times! You’re overreacting, Pickman!” Ebony recognised the second voice and felt her heart begin to pound wildly as she struggled to breathe. The memories of what’d he’d done to her flooded back to her. He’d ruthlessly raped her four different times, defiling her in sickening ways and then letting her suffer alone after he was done with her. Once he’d finished a few bottles of beer, he’d planted his boot in her face and knocked her out.

     “Well, you know what? You’re officially fired. You won’t get a single cap from me,” the first man said, and before her rapist could say anything, a deafening gunshot rang through the building. “You won’t be alive long enough to.”

     She could hear distant footsteps approaching and frantically looked for a way out. She shook the pipe she was cuffed to and was pleasantly surprised to find it weak and loose. Ebony stood and pulled on the pipe with all of her strength. The complete soreness from her attack hit her like a ton of bricks, but she pushed the pain aside as the pipe loudly gave way.

     “What the fuck was that?” a gruff voice said, just outside the door. It quickly opened, but she was ready for them, the pipe poised like a baseball bat.

     One of the two men, both armed with assault rifles, rushed toward her. She swung with all her might, the rusty pipe connecting with his head with a sickening crack. He instantly crumpled to the ground. When she looked up at the other man, the butt of a rifle hit her in the head, bringing her to the floor. She tried to reach for the pipe, but he kicked it away and pulled the rifle back as if he was going to hit her again.

     “I’d stop right now, lest you end up like your friend downstairs,” a man said from the doorway, the same voice that was yelling at Dmitri. She had thought he’d been speaking to her, but quickly realised he was glaring at the man standing over her.

     “The bitch just killed Mike. She deserves to be punished,” the man argued, looking back at the one in the doorway. While they were distracted, she slowly began reaching for the pipe again, her fingers just ghosting the edge of it.

     The man, Pickman, she assumed, chuckled darkly. “Oh, she will be. In time.” His tone sent a chill down her spine, but she ignored it as she got a firm grasp on the pipe, bringing it close to where she was lying prone on the floor. “But if you put another bruise on her, I will make you regret every stupid decision you’ve ever made.”

     The men glared at each other for another long minute before the one standing over her finally moved away, shouldering past Pickman.

     Pickman’s eyes moved to her, watching her with distant fascination. He was tall, with dark, slicked back hair. He wore a pressed, tan suit, so neat that she was left to wonder if there were any dry cleaners left to clean it. He kept his hands behind his back as he slowly approached her, shined shoes glinting in the light from the doorway.

     Ebony waited until he was within an arm’s reach before she jumped up and swung the pipe with one hand. He easily caught it mid-swing, pulling her towards him and plunging something into her neck with his free hand. She cried out in pain. He twisted her wrist hard enough to force her to drop the pipe.

     She suddenly felt her knees buckle, unable to stop whimpering from the pain radiating from her neck. Pickman went down with her, quietly shushing her as one would shush a baby.

     “Quiet now, sweet one. The pain will end soon.” She felt her eyes roll and her her eyelids become as heavy as lead. “That’s right. Just sleep. Dream well, sweet one.”

 

***

 

**_Friday, August 26th, 2287 (Mid-Morning)_ **

 

     “It’s time to wake up, sweet one. Wake up now.”

     Ebony struggled to get her eyelids open, but once she finally did, she immediately jumped back, the metal of her cuffs clinking. She was restrained to another pipe in the wall, and she could tell the new one would not budge as easily as the last.

     She looked up to see Pickman crouching right in front of her, causing her to recoil so quickly she actually hit her head up against the brick wall. She heard him laugh softly.

     “I didn’t think you’d take so very long to come to. However, I suppose Dmitri must have exhausted you,” he stated matter-of-factly, getting closer to her, watching her as if he was taking in every detail of her. His intense gaze made her look down self consciously; she slowly realised that someone had taken her shirt and pants, which had both been ripped during her rape, and replaced them with a simple, oversized, white t-shirt. She guardedly drew her bare legs in closer as she shot him a questioning look, not daring to speak. He seemed to understand after a moment. “Oh, that? Well, you were quite exposed when that idiot brought you to me. I thought it’d make you a bit more comfortable to be in something decent.”

     Ebony regarded him suspiciously but said nothing.

     “I am truly sorry for the utter atrocity he committed. He was not supposed to harm you at all, but please rest assured that he paid for it with his life,” he said with an alarmingly kind smile. His eloquent demeanor seriously caught her off guard.

     “Well, sorry doesn’t change what he did to me,” she snapped, her voice rough, quiet, but full of poison. “What the fuck do you want with me?”

     Pickman laughed again. “Wow. The sweet one has a sour side,” he said, one finger coming up to caress her face. She jerked away before he could touch her, but that just made him grab her chin and force her to look at him. His grasp wasn’t tight enough to hurt, just tight enough to keep her still. “I want you to understand something, sweet one. You are not allowed to defy me in any manner. Even with all the damage already done to you, much more can be inflicted. You need to remember that; it is what will keep you alive.”

     “As for what I want with you, it is really quite simple. I want you to be my final masterpiece, the crown jewel of this gallery, before I move on to Goodneighbour.” Her eyes widened at the mention of the town. “Oh, yes, you will be serving more than one use; you will be what draws Hancock and his guards away from his little town, leaving it completely defenseless and ripe for the taking.”

     “You’re wrong,” she said quietly, unable to shake her head in his grasp. “He’s not going to come for me. I’m not worth the trouble of saving.”

     Pickman looked at her oddly before saying, “Time will tell just which of us is wrong, sweet one. He has one week to come for you. One week until I begin my work on you. Hopefully, he will arrive just in time to see you as the beautiful work of art you were meant to be.”

     “What do you mean “work of art”?”

     He smiled down at her and that scrutinising look entered his eyes once again. “Your _corpse_ will be the centerpiece of this gallery, of course. I wonder if I should kill you with poison to preserve your body. Or maybe I could chop you into pieces and make you an abstract work…”

     Ebony felt her eyes widen and felt the need to puke. _Oh God, he’s going to murder me and put my body on display…_ She clamped down on her fear, trying not to show it in any way.

     “Well then it seems I will be dead in seven days because he won’t come to help me. I was just a charity case, Pickman. John’s probably celebrating the fact that I’m gone,” she stated, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not stop her voice from breaking on John’s name.

     Again, he watched her oddly. What was that look? Was it confusion? Curiosity?

     “Sweet one, tell me something I must know. Who so utterly shattered your soul?”

     Even as he watched her with complete seriousness, she couldn’t help but scoff. “How poetic. I do not know who broke my soul. But what makes you think you’d be one told?” she asked with a small smirk. “See? I can be poetic, too.”

     He raised an eyebrow at her, amusement dancing in his eyes. “You have quite a smart mouth. But I'd be careful, for you are toeing the line of defiance. As for _John_ celebrating, I wouldn't be so sure. I happen to know for a fact that he's doing quite the opposite.”

     “How would _you_ know anything about him?”

     “I've been watching him for quite some time now, from a distance, of course. Though I've never personally entered Goodneighbour, I know quite a few that have, people that don't have much love for the place. One must know their enemy well before they can effectively bring them to their knees.”

     “The best way to bring John Hancock to his knees is to steal away the ones he cares for. And you, my dear, seem to be the one he cares for most.”

     Ebony narrowed her eyes at him. “But why would he?”

     “Now that, I can't say. There just seems to be something special about you. It's what drew me to you, sweet one.”

     “Stop calling me that,” she hissed, growing tired of the creepy ass nickname.

     All he did was chuckle at her, a smile creeping onto his face. “As I said before, _sweet one_ , time will tell us who is wrong. And it will most certainly be you.” He leaned forward, and though every muscle in her body screamed for her to move away, she remembered his earlier warning. She forced herself to stay completely still as he placed a kiss on her forehead.

_I really want to murder this creepy bastard._

     Pickman rose to his full height, towering over her. “I'll be going out for a while, but Mike here will be keeping you company,” he said, looking over his shoulder. Confused, she followed his gaze and nearly gagged as the smell hit her. She wondered how she hadn't noticed it earlier. “What? You didn't really think you’d go unpunished for killing one of my guards earlier, did you?”

     In a corner of the small room sat the corpse of a man, slouched over. She had to fight the urge to puke when she saw his face.

     His head was noticeably dented. One of his eyes hung out by just a tendon, the other bulging from the socket. His face was bloody and grey, angled so that the bulging eye was looking directly at her. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remove her eyes from the horrifying sight.

     Ebony distantly heard Pickman chuckle. “You seem to have one hell of a swing, sweet one.”

_I couldn't have hit him that hard. I_ couldn't _have…_

     She was only able to tear her eyes from it when she heard Pickman begin to walk away. She began to panic at the thought of being left in the tiny, dark room with the corpse.

     “Please, don't. Don't leave me in here with it. _Please_ ,” she pleaded, hoping beyond hope that he’d have an ounce of mercy.

     “Well, it seems you won't be fighting back again,” was all he said, not even turning to look at her as he opened the door.

     A second later, it closed, leaving her alone in the dark, the smell a constant reminder that there was a corpse not even five feet from her, never taking its dead eyes off her.


	14. Not Hungry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave it to Ebs to sass her captor.

     **_Friday, August 26th, 2287 (Late Afternoon)_ **

 

    Ebony laid on the cold floor, the floorboards rough on her bare legs. She faced the wall, her arms sore from hanging from the pipe she was cuffed to. She stared at the blank wall, having resorted to counting the cracks in it to avoid thinking of her “punishment” sitting a few feet away from her. Every few minutes, though, she’d lose count and have to start over.

    She’d gotten as far as fifty-eight when the door opened, flooding the small room with light and momentarily blinding her. She decided not to turn over, knowing it was probably just Pickman and not wanting to see him. Ebony could see his shadow, just standing in the doorway.

    “Are you awake?” he asked after a second. She didn’t reply, hoping he’d just leave. She wasn’t so lucky. “Come on now. I know you are.”

    “Then why did you ask?” she snapped.

    He sighed, and instead of answering her, he asked her another question. “Are you hungry? You must be, since it’s surely been a day or two since you last ate.” She was indeed very hungry, the pain of it gnawing at her, but she kept silent. He sighed again, and she could _hear_ the eye roll in it. “Stop sulking. _Now_.”

    “How do you expect me to eat while cuffed to the wall? I can’t exactly use my hands in this state,” she said matter-of-factly, still facing the wall.

    He chuckled at her. “I _could_ just feed it to you.”

    “And I _could_ just bite your fucking fingers off.”

    “Watch your mouth,” he snapped, making her flinch slightly. She prayed he didn’t see it. “I was considering uncuffing you while you ate. As long as you behave, I’ll-”

    “Pass.”

    There was a moment of shocked silence. “What?”

    “I said I’ll pass. I’m not hungry,” she declared, not needing to turn over to know that he was getting aggravated. “A rotting corpse tends to put off one’s appetite.”

    “You _need_ to eat.”

    “You _need_ to go away.”

    Ebony jumped when she heard the sound of shattering glass. She quickly sat up and twisted her body so that she could see what had happened. A broken glass bottle littered the ground, drops of blood falling from Pickman’s right hand. She soon realised that she’d seriously pissed him off. She saw that he was holding a plate in the other hand.

    His voice shook with anger when he spoke. “If you don’t obey and eat now, you won’t be eating _at all_. This is your last chance.”

    “I’ve already told you. _I’m not hungry_.”

    They glared at each other for several long moments before he curtly said, “Fine.” She watched him turn around and walk out, jumping when he slammed the door shut.

    She laid back down and muttered, “I didn’t eat for two hundred years. A week won’t kill me.” Her stomach growled loudly in protest, but she ignored it, going back to counting the cracks. “One, two, three, four…”

 

***

 

     **_Saturday, August 27th, 2287 (Early Morning)_ **

 

    Ebony woke with a gasp, her breathing laboured and her head pounding. A few seconds passed before she was able to calm herself. She had been having a nightmare, the one about the vault.

    She felt confusion wash over her when she noticed pale green light emanating from behind her. She could feel eyes on her, and when she turned over, she could see Pickman leaned up against the door, holding the light source.

    Her PipBoy. She’d completely forgotten about it.

    Pickman’s eyes were trained on her, but she saw that he was still messing with the dials of the small computer. She couldn’t clearly make out his expression, which seemed to make him ten times creepier.

    “What are you doing?” she asked after a tense moment. “Other than being generally freaky, I mean.”

    His eyes flicked back to the PipBoy before he spoke. “What were you dreaming about?” His question caught her off guard, causing her to furrow her eyebrows.

    “Excuse me?”

    “It was obviously nothing pleasant. I could hear you crying when I was in the other room; I came to check on you, and you seemed to be dreaming quite fitfully. So, tell me. What were you dreaming about?”

    “None of your damn business,” she snapped.

    Ebony felt her breath hitch and her blood run cold when he stopped fiddling with the PipBoy, his eyes focusing back on her. A stab of fear made her heart beat faster as she remember him crushing the glass bottle with his bare hand. She glanced at it, seeing that it had been bandaged.

    But after a moment, he simply sighed, shook his head, and looked back down at the PipBoy. “I’ve already told you once, and I’m only going to say it once more: Watch your mouth.”

    “What? Are you going to wash it out with soap if I don’t?” she scoffed.

    “No, but I have been seriously considering hitting you so hard that you see stars,” he said in an almost bored tone. “I’d really hate to bruise that pretty face of yours, though. I want Mayor Hancock seeing you in your best condition when he arrives.”

    Ebony couldn’t tell if his threat was serious or not, but she wasn’t in the mood to test her luck. “By “best condition,” I’m assuming you mean dead.”

    “Not dead. I mean a perfect work of art.”

    “So, dead. Glad we cleared that up,” she quipped as she rolled back over to the wall. She caught a glimpse of the dead body in the corner but willed her mind to forget about it. She focused on listening to the footsteps coming from the floors above and below her; she had noticed that there was almost constant traffic throughout the building.

    Ebony nearly yelped when loud classical music started playing, the sudden noise startling her. The volume was adjusted after a few seconds, and Pickman’s footsteps began approaching. She was tempted to turn over to see what he was doing, but she stayed still, even when she felt his presence directly behind her.

    The floor creaked quietly, the sound being followed by the soft rustle of something being placed beside her.

    She almost jerked away when Pickman tucked a long lock of hair behind her ear. “I thought a some light and music might help you sleep more peacefully,” he whispered. Ebony held her breath as he placed a kiss on her head. “Dream well, sweet one.”

    She released her breath after he swept out of the room, the door closing softly.

    “Could he _stop_ kissing me on the head and calling me sweet one?” she muttered angrily.

    Ebony groaned when her stomach growled and spent the next few hours struggling to fall back to sleep.

 

***

 

     **_Sunday, August 28th, 2287 (Almost Noon)_ **

 

    She hadn’t even heard him come in. Ebony had simply closed her eyes for a few seconds, letting her head loll to the side as she leaned back against the wall; she tried her hardest to block out the pain of hunger that had turned to nausea. The smell of the rotting corpse definitely hadn’t been helping.

    Her eyes fluttered open for just a second as she dozed, but the sight made her jolt awake.

    Pickman was crouched not even a foot away from her, watching her with curiosity.

    “What the fuck are you doing?!” she blurted, not even thinking about his earlier warnings. _Watch your mouth._ She panicked when he cocked an eyebrow at her and rushed to say, “Hey, you can’t blame me for that one! I don’t have control of my language when I first wake up. And you scared me by being so close, which is really uncalled for, by the way.”

    He didn’t say anything for a moment, just watched her. Finally breaking the silence, he said, “Something has come to my attention. It seems that Hancock is unaware that _I_ am the one who has taken you.”

    Ebony felt her heart sink. Though she knew better, she had dared to hope that someone would come for, save her from the creep in front of her. It had only been a wisp of hope that she had first blocked out, but eventually let in.

    “So, it seems I will be right after all,” she whispered, not meeting his eyes. “He won’t be coming for me.”

    “Not so fast. You didn’t let me finish. He is currently unaware of who has taken you, but I am going to send him something that will practically spell it out for him,” he explained, trailing his fingers down on of her legs. She flinched away, the nauseous feeling growing worse whenever he touched her.

    “Well, here’s to hoping you aren’t cutting off a body part,” she muttered half-heartedly. She was honestly too exhausted to care what he did; her hunger was making it next to impossible to sleep and was directly contributing to the fatigue as well. And, contrary to popular belief, the feeling of a corpse constantly watching her didn’t help in the fight to get decent sleep in _any_ way. The music from the PipBoy wasn’t even able to lull her off at that point.

    She noticed Pickman’s hesitance before he chuckled. “Of course not. I wouldn’t do something quite so unsightly just to get him on the trail.”

    “Your hesitation is very reassuring,” she quipped.

    “I’ll simply be taking some blood from you. Hopefully, he knows what yours smells like by now,” Pickman said, seemingly to himself.

    She raised an eyebrow at him. “Say what about him knowing the smell of my blood?”

    “Ghouls have very sensitive senses of smell. They can detect even the slightest differences in blood. I was under the impression that that was common knowledge,” he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

    “Well, it wasn’t common knowledge for me. Go ahead. Take what you want. It doesn’t matter what you do, he _won’t_ come. I’ve already told you I’m not worth the trouble.”

    He seemed to want to say something, but instead moved slightly to the side. She could see the glint of a knife and a small bowl, watched as he picked up both. She hissed when the cool metal made contact with her thigh, easily breaking the skin. She bit her lip to keep from voicing her pain while trying to ignore the damn near hungry look on Pickman’s face as he watched her crimson blood flow into the bowl.

    Once the bowl was half-full, he pressed a cloth to the wound. She felt a little light headed as he bandaged her leg, tempted to doze back off.

    “You’d feel better if you ate something,” she distantly heard Pickman say.

    Ebony felt herself shake her head and mumble, “Not hungry…” She didn’t fight as unconsciousness swallowed her up.


	15. Evidence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yooooooooooo! You would not believe how long I've been waiting to post this chapter! Like, it's been ready for so long, but i never had the time to upload it. Please leave feedback! I love to hear what you guys think!!! (I'm sorry it isn't longer, by the way!)
> 
> Please enjoy, Lovelies!!

     **_Sunday, August 28th, 2278 (Noon)_ **

 

    “She’s...gone?” Nick asked in disbelief. He clutched the several files in his hand tighter. He thought up about a dozen different things that could have happened to Ebony, which really didn't help anything. Only proved to worry him even more.

    Hancock nodded. “No one saw her leave. I've checked in with my contacts in Diamond City; no one saw her there either. Checked the surrounding ruins and no dice. It's like she just disappeared. Into thin fucking air.” He sighed, tiredly running a hand over his face. Though he seemed to be trying to appear calm, his black, worry-filled eyes gave him away. “She took her gun and her PipBoy. I've honestly been trying to convince myself that she left on her own. Doesn't mean I'm any less worried, but it's better than thinking of the other alternatives, however fucked up and selfish that sounds.”

     “But you know she wouldn't do that. She's far too smart to go out there alone, especially without telling someone,” Nick said, glancing over at the bed in the corner. Dogmeat was curled up in the center of it, sad, brown eyes watching the detective. “And she definitely wouldn't have left Dogmeat.”

    “Yeah, I know. I said I was _trying_ to convince myself, not that it was actually working. He's been following me around constantly since she went missing; whenever we're in here, he stays curled up on the bed. He's worrying me, too; he hardly eats or drinks anything. He misses her. We all do.” As if to prove his point, Dogmeat whined, a pitiful sound.

    “Have you tried using him to find her? Find her scent and follow it?”

    “Already thought about that. But it rained the day after she went missing, so it didn't work very well.” Hancock shook his head, seemingly to himself. “I don't know what could have happened to her, though.”

    Nick watched his friend and despised the next words that left his own mouth. “Hancock, this honestly sounds like the Institute's doing.” He waited a beat, but when no answer came, he continued. “No witnesses, just suddenly disappearing without a trace. That's got the Institute's M-O all over it. I really hate to say it, but it's possible someone connected the dots with Piper’s paper on her. They might've taken her because of the radiation mutation. Or it could've just been a random kidnapping.”

    Hancock closed his eyes, rubbing his temples. After a moment of silence, he firmly shook his head, looked up at Nick, and said, “No.”

    “No?”

    “No. If they took her, that would mean there is no hope of getting her back. And we _are_ going to get her back. We _will_ find her, no matter what it takes. And then I'll blow the fucking head off of whoever took her,” he growled the last sentence, more to himself.

    Nick sighed, resigned to the fact that Hancock might never accept that the Institute could've been involved. _He's just that stubborn…_

    Hancock finally noticed the files that Nick had almost forgotten. “What are those?”

    Nick dropped the stack on the mayor’s desk. “A little insight into Ebony’s past.” Both of Hancock’s ruined eyebrows shot up in surprise, his eyes going wide. “They're police reports, Hancock. I found them at the Precinct 8 station. I believe you'll want to take a look at the top one first.”

    Hancock picked up the file, which seemed to hold quite a few papers in it. He read the small, faded label. “DV? That's domestic violence, isn't it?”

    “Yeah. But they really should have filed it under attempted murder,” Nick said, going to sit down on the couch. When he did, Dogmeat jumped off of the bed and hopped up beside him, plopping his head into the detective’s lap. Nick silently pet him, watching as the mayor read the file. He could almost see the smoke coming out of his ears. “She went by Nora before the war. Apparently, she had a husband and a baby. About two months before the bombs fell, a neighbour called the cops, reporting a domestic disturbance at the Astor residence.”

    “When the cops got to the house, she was being held at knife-point and used as a human shield. The husband was taken in after some resistance.” Hancock was still holding the file in a vise-like grip, but his black, narrowed eyes were trained on Nick. “They took her to the hospital and got her statement there. Her husband, Nate, had been abusing her for three years, even through her pregnancy. She was going to file charges, but her parents bribed the station and forced her silence. I had thought I’d recognised the name when she first told us, but I blew it off as nothing. They were a very wealthy family; the old Nick worked some of they’re cases. Usually the ones that involved homicide, but they'd always managed to cover their tracks or pay off the police stations. That's why all those case files have a big, red stamp on them.” Nick paused long enough to light a smoke and take a drag. “Like I said, they'd paid for the officers’ silence. They didn't want anyone “tarnishing” their supposedly good name. Not even when their own daughter was in danger. The husband got off scot-free. I'd bet anything that Ebony had signs of severe abuse when she went into that vault and none of the scientists even thought to question it.” Nick shook his head sadly, watching the bright red cherry of the cigarette.

    Hancock looked to the page that her statement was on and read part of it, trying to ignore the picture beside it of a blonde women who looked so utterly exhausted.

 

     _He had gotten back from his second tour a few days before it all started. One day, he just snapped. The beatings let up a bit when I was pregnant with Shaun; I honestly thought I would miscarry. It's a miracle that he was born, even more so that he was healthy…_

 

    “Do you think she can remember any of it?” Hancock asked quietly as he flipped through more of the photos. He stopped cold when he came to two specific ones.

    “I doubt it, but there's always a chance she vaguely remembers.”

    “She does,” Hancock said suddenly, still staring at the photos, the pieces fitting together perfectly like a puzzle.

    Nick cocked an eyebrow. “What?” Hancock walked over, handed the detective the open file, and pointed to a picture of a knife and a picture of a living room. The large kitchen knife had small trails of blood on it. The living room looked as if a tornado had blown through it. Lamps were shattered, furniture was overturned, and empty whiskey bottles were scattered about. And an unpacked Mr. Handy box was sitting by the kitchen’s island that was just barely in the frame.

    “Ebony told me about some of her nightmares. She remembers this room from two of them. I mean, she described it in perfect detail! Right down to the opened but unpacked Mr. Handy box in the kitchen. In one, she was being held with a knife to her throat. She has a scar on her neck where he cut her.” Hancock watched the detective as he analyzed the photos. Nick shook his head.

    “This explains her behaviour, too. Flinching, apologising, they're subconscious signs of abuse, physical and emotional,” Nick was saying but Hancock hardly heard him.

    There was a faint smell in the air, a bittersweet, metallic scent he recognised all too well.

    The scent was accompanied by pounding, running footsteps, and the door swung open a second later. Fahrenheit stood looking at him with wide eyes, a yellowed slip of paper in her hand. She held it out for him to take. “This was left in the door to Goodneighbour. I know where Ebony is, Hancock.”


	16. Just Out Of Reach

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a bit of time jumping in this one, so pay attention. Please let me know what you think! Please enjoy, Lovelies!!

**_Monday, August 29th, 2278 (Morning)_ **

 

    Ebony's eyes shot wide open. She was facing the hole-filled wall. She shivered when she realised how frigid the room was. Her breath came out as white mist.

    She felt eyes on her, another chill running up her spine. Against her better judgement, she turned her head to look behind her.

    Yellow eyes stared at her from the corner, one bulging and one hanging.

    Ebony's breath caught in her throat and her body was paralyzed in fear as the corpse’s head turned to the side at an almost impossible angle. She felt as if it was analyzing every little detail of her.

    The corpse moved onto its hands and knees with quite a bit of difficulty; bones creaked loudly as it did. When it began crawling toward her at an agonisingly slow pace, she sat up and tried to move away from it but her bonds stopped her.

    It was getting closer, almost within reaching distance. She frantically attempted to kick it away, but had to watch in horror as chains began wrapping around her legs, curling all the way up to her waist. She could hardly move.

    The corpse was breathing and moaning raggedly, an eyeball swinging with every movement. Suddenly, it stopped just before it reached her legs. It stayed like that for several tense moments.

    With impossible speed, it got right up in her face, causing her to scream and increase her efforts to wriggle from her bonds.

    The corpse opened its mouth, a disgusting, rotting smell making her gag. No sound came for a moment, but when it did, it was akin to a hissing. It took her some time to realise that the corpse was shushing her. Shushing her in a broken, stuttering way.

    She recognised the sound from her first night in the cramped, dark room. It echoed ominously off the wooden walls, a haunting effect.

    Ebony squeezed her eyes shut, fruitlessly struggling against her bonds with the little strength she had left. She felt arms wrap around her, tight and painful. She continued to thrash, but her arms wouldn't move.

    “Let me go! Let me  _ go _ !” she shouted desperately.

    “Stop struggling! It's just a dream! Wake up!”

    Ebony's eyes shot open, her breathing rapid and wild, her heart pounding out of her chest. It took her only a second to realise that she was in Pickman's arms and that he was the one that had spoken. She shoved him away from her and scrambled back against the wall, not even realising that her hands were free.

    “Get the fuck away from me!” she shouted, only to be rewarded with a sharp slap. It was so painful that her cheek throbbed as tears pricked at her eyes. She refused to look at him, refused to let him see the tears.

    “I have told you that you will not defy me. And I expect that to be obeyed, understand?” Pickman spoke sternly as if he was scolding a child; she could only meekly nod. She glanced at her free hands, her wrists raw and red. They were bleeding from several rough scrapes. “You were straining against the cuffs so hard that you were beginning to hurt yourself. Don't even think about trying anything. Stay here.”

    Pickman stood and walked out the door; she saw a guard with a large gun glaring at her before it closed. Ebony rubbed at her painfully sore wrists as she struggled to stand. She felt light-headed and had to brace herself against the wall; her legs were shaking. She flinched when the door opened again. Her captor held a couple of cloth bandages in one hand and a plate in the other.

    She eyed it, salivating at the food on it: chunks of steaming meat, some kind of foreign looking vegetable, and some ordinary mashed potatoes. The smell was absolutely heavenly. Pickman saw her staring and chuckled.

    “Hungry?” His voice snapped her out of it, and she looked away from the delicious looking food.

    “No,” she said weakly, unconvincingly. “Kind of hard to eat with a corpse staring at you. Pretty difficult to sleep, as well.”

    “I assume that's what you were so violently dreaming about. What if I was to have it removed? Would you eat then?” he asked, setting the plate down just a few feet away from her.

    “Maybe,” she answered cautiously.

    “Then, it will be done; I believe you've been punished enough. Hold out your wrists for me.”

    “Why?” she asked, guardedly holding her hands to her chest.

    “I was going to bandage them for you. I thought that much was obvious,” he quipped, holding his hand out expectantly. She hesitantly gave him her wrists, flinching as he quickly, and not so gently, bandaged them both. She had to force herself not to move away as a hand came up to touch the cheek he had slapped. He tutted disapprovingly. “That's going to bruise. How unfortunate, I didn't want you tarnished when I put you on display. Hopefully it will clear up.”

    “You didn't have to slap me,” she said quietly.

    “ _ You _ didn't have to shove me away and shout at me. I had already warned you about defying me.” She glared at him as he moved to examine the leg he had cut the day earlier. She ignored his frown.

    “I was having a nightmare! How am I supposed-”

    “Shut up,” he said sternly, not looking her in the eye but still at her leg. She gaped at him.

    “Excuse-”

    “How has your leg already healed?”

    “What are you talking about?” She glanced down at her legs.

    “The cut I made should've taken a while to heal and it might've even scarred. Not even a Stimpak could fix it this fast, and I didn't even give you one. So how is it that there is no mark at all?”

    Ebony hesitated for a moment, not sure what to tell him. She was scared of lying to him, of him seeing through her, but she didn't want to tell him the truth either. There was no telling what he might try to do if he found out. “I-I don't know,” she stuttered.

    Pickman stared at her before snapping, “Yes, you do. Don't lie to me.”

    Ebony gulped as he took a step closer to her, was right in her face. “I swear to you, I don't know. I've just always healed quickly. Ever since I was a kid.”

    He squinted at her, seemingly analysing her. She distantly realised that her heart was pounding and her legs were shaking again. “Even so, there would have been some kind of mark. You're hiding something from me, sweet one, and I intend to find out what. But first, you need to eat,” he said as he stepped away from her. “You won't be answering any questions if you've collapsed.”

    She glanced at the plate, her appetite slightly dampened by the fear coursing through her veins. Pickman casually grabbed the corpse’s arm and opened the door. She kept her eyes trained on the floor.

    “I'll leave you to eat. When I come by and check on you again, it better all be gone.” With that, he effortlessly dragged the rotting corpse from the room, kicking the door shut behind him. It was dark for a moment until her eyes adjusted and she was able to find her PipBoy. She turned it on, soft, green light filling the room.

    Ebony picked up the plate and used the fork haphazardly stuck in the potatoes to eat, trying to keep herself from wondering what the meat and vegetable were. All she could think about was how hungry she was and how delicious the food tasted. It was all gone in minutes; she had hardly slowed down to breath. She was still hungry, but the feeling wasn't quite as painful.

    After a few moments, she slowly stood, bracing herself on the wall as she rose because of her still shaky legs. She took a few steps to the door and, though she knew better to even hope, tried the knob, making sure to be gentle enough so that no one on the other side would notice. Ignoring her disappointment at the locked door, she felt around her small cell that was barely the size of a walk-in closet. She searched for any more loose pipes or boards in the wall but found nothing that she could properly use as a weapon.

    “Doesn't matter, I guess,” she whispered to herself. “A flimsy piece of wood wouldn't do me any good against a gun.”

    A sudden wave of dizziness and exhaustion brought her to her knees in one corner of the room. Her head started to ache, and her vision started to blur. Before she could even string a thought together, she slumped over into the floor, unconscious.

 

***

**_Sunday, August 28th, 2278 (Afternoon)_ **

 

    “I'm going to murder that psychotic bastard,” Hancock growled, furiously pacing the back room of the Third Rail. He had a small slip of yellowed paper balled in his fist. “I'm gonna tear him to fuckin’ shreds and make sure he feels as much fuckin’ pain as possible. We have to go get her; we have to get her  _ now _ .”

    “Hancock, as much as I'm with you on that idea, we can't just go stormin’ the gallery and leavin’ Goodneighbour completely defenseless. You know that.” Fahrenheit watched the mayor from her spot beside the door, glancing momentarily at the trio seated on the red sofa. Nick, Piper, and MacCready all traded worried and nervous looks with each other.

    Hancock didn't acknowledge the woman’s words but she knew he had heard them. Piper cleared her throat, grabbing Fahr’s attention as the mayor paced relentlessly.

    “You said you sent scouts out there, right? What did they say about the small army of hired guns Pickman has built up?” Fahr could tell that the reporter's sharp and snarky tone was nowhere in sight.

    “What you told us was true. There are mercenaries absolutely crawling everywhere around the place. The scouts could hardly get close enough to the gallery because of the patrols. We also discovered what happened to the other scout party; found ‘em dead and riddled with bullet holes, hardly anything to bury,” she explained, lighting a cigarette and taking a deep drag. Fahr sighed heavily and levelled the mayor with a look. “Hancock, for the love of God, please, stop pacing.” The ghoul continued on as if he hadn't heard her, seemingly lost in thought.  _ Probably imagining all the ways he could kill Pickman… _

__ Fahrenheit placed herself directly in his path, making him startle from his thoughts. “John. Stop. Pacing. Calm your ass down. We need you focused if we're gonna start planning to get Ebs back.”

    Hancock clenched his jaw, annoyed at his bodyguard for stopping him, royally pissed off at Pickman for thinking he could lay a hand on Ebony. On his Sunshine. He balled his first even tighter, the goading note crinkling.

    All it had said was,  _ “Come and get your girl, Mayor,” _ with a large heart beside the words painted in blood.  _ Her _ blood.

    He had no idea what to think. He had no idea how Pickman had managed to snatch her. He had no idea what kind of state she was in. He had no idea if his Sunshine was even still  _ alive _ .

    He sighed in resignation, nodding glumly. “You're right, Fahr,” he said quietly. “Nothin’s gonna get done if I'm too pissed to think straight.”

    “I know I am,” she said as he leaned against the wall, black eyes as troubled as ever. “As I said, we can't go stormin’ the place. It would take more people than we have if the scouts were telling the truth. We might be better off doin’ this quietly with only a small team of people. Kill the patrolling guards silently, then go guns blazing once we get inside. It’d catch everyone off guard; they'd never even know what hit ‘em.”

    “We'll go with you,” Nick spoke without hesitation.

    “Yeah, all three of us,” Piper agreed, smiling sadly at the mayor. “We'll all help get Ebony back.”

    Fahr watched in slight amusement as MacCready looked between the synth and reporter at his sides, seeming distressed. She knew the merc had only spoken to Ebony on a few occasions, given her some pointers on handling a gun, but had had no more interaction than that.

    “RJ? Will you help?” she asked, already knowing the answer. MacCready might not have known Ebony very well, but he knew she was important to Hancock. And he had been loyal to his favourite employer in the past.

    “Yeah, sure,” MacCready answered after a sigh. “Guess it would be good for you guys to have some cover fire. I'll just have to get a suppressor on my rifle if you guys are wanting to do this quietly.”

    Fahrenheit nodded approvingly before turning back to the mayor. “Hancock, you think the five of us would be enough? Or should we pull a few from the Watch?”

    “Nah, we shouldn't drag any of the Watch along. We need as many of them staying here as possible with the threat of attack from Diamond City. Besides, any more than five would make stealth difficult. But we need to stake out the place before we make a move on them.” Fahrenheit could tell Hancock hated the idea of being so close to the gallery and not saving Ebony immediately but knew he understood the need to tread carefully. One wrong move could end in them losing their lives and Ebony probably losing hers too, if she wasn't already dead.

    “We'll get her back, Hancock,” Piper assured quietly, sounding as if she was trying to convince herself of it too. Everyone knew that even Piper was unsure when she was quiet.

    “I know we'll get her back. It's just a question of whether or not she'll be alive,” he said, clenching his jaw as the anger bubbled up inside his chest again.  _ If she is dead, I swear to God, I'll make him suffer. Hell, he'll still be suffering if she's alive… _ .

    A heavy silence hung in the air, everyone aware of the fact that the mayor was right. They had no clue if Ebony was still alive, no way to tell if they'd be rescuing their friend or bringing back her corpse.

    “Well,” Hancock was the first to break the silence, “let's get a move on. We need to know exactly what we're up against if we want to save our girl.”

 

***

 

**_Monday, August 29th, 2278 (Noon)_ **

 

    Ebony felt awful when she woke up hours later, groaning as she sat up slowly. Her head was pounding, her heart racing. It was difficult to get a full breath, and if she breathed too deep, she coughed painfully hard for several minutes.

    With slightly blurry vision, she could see that her PipBoy lay a few feet away, the light still shining softly and quiet music emanating from it, but the plate was gone.

_ Pickman’s been in here…. _

    She made to move closer to the PipBoy but her left arm jerked against something metal. She looked back, realising cuffs around her wrist and a pipe in the wall were keeping her restrained. She wondered why he hadn't cuffed both her hands to the wall, but couldn't focus enough over the pain in her head to question it. Instead she just used her free hand to reach for the small computer again, fingers just barely getting a grasp on it as she dragged it towards her.

    She quickly cut the music off, hoping the silence would help the headache. It didn't. She used one of the dials to get her to a map of the Commonwealth but was unable to clearly see where she was because her vision was refusing to clear. Sighing, she turned off the flashlight, plunging the room into darkness, before setting the PipBoy to the side.

    Another wave of sudden exhaustion hit her, forcing her back into sleep before panic set in over her situation.

 

***

 

**_Sunday, August 28th, 2278 (Late Evening)_ **

     

    “We can stay here for the night,” Hancock said as he opened a back door into a small house, a dining room, kitchen, and living room on the first floor. He crossed to the boarded window beside the front door, looking out between the boards. He could see fire light in the distance and people moving around in the dark streets. “We're close enough to keep an eye on the patrols and far away enough that they won't come knocking. Just don't light too many lanterns or they'll notice.”

    “One should be fine?” Fahr asked, somewhere behind him.

    “Yeah, but keep it away from the windows. There's a group approaching,” he answered, eyes still trained on the figures moving in the street.

    “What is this place?” Piper asked, keeping her voice low as she joined Hancock by the window.

    “A safe house the scouts out here use. Front door stays locked and boarded most of the time, and you saw the maze of alleys we had to go through to get to the back door, so no one really bothers it. They just assume it's abandoned.” The dark figures were getting closer, only about 50 feet away. MacCready was saying something about finding a place to shoot from before Hancock shushed them all.

    Everyone sat in tense silence before they heard voices of the figures drawing near.

    “I heard the bitch killed Mike the first night she was here. Apparently not even Dmitri could break her,” one voice spoke loudly, laughing cruelly.

    “Dmitri was stupid,” another man scoffed. “He knew better than to have his way with her and got himself shot because he couldn't keep it in his pants.”

    “Oh, I think I'd happily eat a bullet if I could have some time with her,” a third voice spoke, deep and cold. “I mean have you  _ seen _ her? All big, blue eyes and pretty curves. I’d kill to have those eyes looking up at me as she sucked me off.” Hancock wrapped his hand tight around his shotgun, tempted to go out and blow their heads off that second.

    “Too bad the boss won't let us have any fun.” The first voice again. “Keeps saying she'll be his ‘masterpiece’ or whatever. It's a waste that she'll be dead by Thursday…”

    Their voices all trailed off into the night as the round a corner.

    “She’s alive,” Piper breathed, a slow smile on her face. “Hancock, this is good! She's alive!”

    “But not for much longer, it’d seem. We're going to have to move soon,” Nick said.

    “They said she had until Thursday,” Fahr said, walking into the living room with the four others. “That gives us time to plan. From the sound of it, Pickman isn't letting them hurt her, he's keeping her safe for...probably something twisted. But now we know she's alive and we know for how long. We don't have to rush into it. RJ can find a good spot to cover us, we can keep an eye on the patrols, probably snag a guy to get answers from him, and, if we need to, we'll have time to get back to Goodneighbor for some backup.”

    MacCready spoke up from his spot on the faded couch, “She's right. I know we're all antsy to get her back, but we need to prepare for as long as we possibly can. I'd say we could even push it until Thursday morning. We'd have our bearings by then and answers from one of the hired guns if we actually do manage to grab one.”

    “We should attack  _ early _ that morning,” Nick said. “If we take care of the patrols, we could catch everyone inside while they're sleeping. We can watch and find the patterns. They're right, Hancock. It's best if we wait it out.”

    Hancock still hadn't turned from the window, black eyes watching as the figure reappeared on the other side of a building, starting to move down the street towards the safe house again.

    He didn't want to let Ebony stay in there a second longer, wanted to go in there and get her right then, but he knew better. Understood that they needed to be better prepared if they wanted to get in and get her out as quickly as possible. Understood that the Fahr, Mac, and Nick were all right.

    “You're awfully quiet for once, Piper. What do you think we should do?” Hancock asked, not looking at the woman when he spoke.

    “I want to get her back as soon as possible,” she said determinedly. “But I also don't want us to all get killed, leaving Ebony with absolutely no hope of being rescued. So if waiting is what it takes, then we wait.”

    “Then, we wait,” he repeated.

 

***

 

**_Monday, August 29th, 2278 (Late Afternoon)_ **

 

    “Ah, good,” Ebony's eyes fluttered open at the voice, “you're finally awake.”

    She looked up at the man in the pressed suit standing over her, her captor smiling down at her.

    She could feel her heart still pounding in her chest; she felt as if someone was attacking her head with a hammer and squeezing her lungs to keep her from breathing easily. Even through the pain, she fixed him with a glare.

    “What did you do?” she asked, her voice barely a rough whisper.

    “I'm surprised at you, sweet one,” he said, his smile growing. “You always seem so cautious and guarded, yet you didn't even hesitate to eat the food. Didn't even think to ask what was in it.”

    “You poisoned me,” she stated, her voice emotionless even as she started to panic internally.

    “I believe I did mention thinking about it. It's the best way to preserve your body.”

    “You said I had seven days before you'd kill me…”

    Pickman nodded. “And I will be true to my word. It will take a few days for you to die with this poison, maybe a bit longer with your little healing factor you don't want to tell me about. But you will certainly die.”

    Ebony couldn't respond, could only focus on trying to breath.

    “It makes it difficult, doesn't it? Breathing. Like it's slowly suffocating you. You will get nosebleeds, you will begin to cough up blood, and by the third or fourth day, you won't be able to get enough air to stay conscious,” he said with a cheerful tone, the smile still plastered on his face. He reached into his pocket, pulling something out but she couldn't see what it was. “But I like to test fate and, as you know, I like to see people suffer. I have an antidote for the poison in this little syringe," he explained as he held the slim object up. "It is the only thing that can save you, and it will be left right here, just a few feet away from you. Just out of your reach, sweet one." He moved to place the syringe in the corner opposite her, where Mike’s corpse had sat.

    “You're a psychopath, Pickman,” she said in between struggling breaths. She started to cough when she instinctively tried to take a full breath. She winced at the flood of light when he opened the door.

    “Yes, I am well aware of that, sweet one,” he called over his shoulder, leaving her to struggle for the only thing that could save her life that was just out of reach.

    Ebony tried to stretch as far as she could, tried to use her feet to grab it, but every time, she would come up just short of getting it. She knew why he had left one wrist uncuffed now; he wanted to torture her with hope that she could never grasp.

    She started to cry, sobbing into the floorboards, her lungs burning painfully as she struggled even harder to breath through the tears. She cried herself to sleep for the first time in her captivity at Pickman’s. Because she was going to die. And it would be so painful.

  
_ John, please come save me…. _


End file.
